CREWE town councillors are preparing to hold face-to-face meetings again.

Government legislation requiring public bodies to carry out their business via virtual platforms, introduced last April after the pandemic hit, has not yet been extended beyond May 7.

That means authorities may need to find suitable premises to host their meetings to accommodate social distancing, but many will want to continue to live streaming sessions to the public on platforms such as YouTube rather than have members of the public attend.

While councils await guidelines from central government, Crewe Town Council has already laid plans to hold meetings away from its base at Chantry Court, which may not have enough space to comply with Covid guidelines, particularly for its larger meetings.

The council's annual meeting on May 18 could be held at the Salvation Army's premises nearby in Prince Albert Street.

It will be the first time councillors have met together since March 31 last year. All subsequent meetings, including committees and full council meetings, have been held via zoom with the live stream made available on YouTube; recordings of all meetings are available to be viewed later on the authority's social media channels.

Town Council Clerk Peter Turner says there has been a positive response from the public to those and he believes digital viewing encourages people to take an interest in local government.

"All our meetings have been viewed by double figure audiences which is a level of attention we've not previously received which is a positive thing. It makes us more open and local government more accessible when behind closed doors it can be a little misunderstood," said the clerk.

"The recommendation is that we make the meetings available through digital media and invest in equipment for video in our meeting room. If people can access our meeting remotely then that will mean fewer people coming together in a single room."

The council is basing its plans on the assumption it will again be required to hold "physical" meetings from May.

Town councillors agreed at last night's full council meeting to spend £4,000 on recording technology so meetings could be broadcast from the council meeting room ahead of the potential change.

They also agreed to provisionally book outside meeting rooms up to the end of September that could be used if necessary to comply with government guidance with a budget of up to £2,000 and up to a further £2,000 could be spent on portable recording and broadcasting equipment if those external meetings rooms were needed.