The majority of councillors supported the prospect of having a £13,000 conference system installed at Congleton Town Hall, which would allow future hybrid meetings and potential bookings to take place both in person and virtually.

Congleton Town Council committee meetings are traditionally conducted face-to-face, however, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, meetings of a face-to-face nature were unable to take place.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the government temporarily removed the legal requirement for local authorities to hold public meetings in person until May 2021 and gave councils the powers to hold public meetings virtually via video or telephone conferencing technology.

Since the government made this decision, many of the Congleton Town Council committee meetings and working groups have been carried out using the 'Zoom' platform.

After initial "teething issues", the 'Zoom' platform has "worked well" and allowed meetings to continue whilst councillors, the press and the public, were in 'lockdown' and unable to meet in the town hall.

As lockdown restrictions have eased, staff and councillors, who were working remotely, have gradually started to return to a mix of office based and remote working.

This has raised the issue of future Covid-19 secure 'hybrid' meetings where a number of councillors and staff may attend in person, while others choose to attend remotely via Zoom or some other virtual platform.

Speaking at last Thursday's Congleton Town Council meeting of Town Hall, Assets & Services Committee, Mark Worthington, town hall manager, stated the town hall can safely accommodate four members of staff/councillors with Covid-secure social distancing restrictions in place in the Campbell Suite for hybrid meetings.

Mr Worthington said: "We have used this recently in meetings and the sound does seem to be acceptable."

Traditionally, council and committee meetings are held in the Bridestones Suite while smaller working group meetings are held in the Spencer Suite.

The purchase of a webcam has resolved the issue for smaller 'hybrid' meetings held in the Spencer Suite.

The webcam is connected to the wall mounted interactive touch screen and the user signs into their Zoom account using the built in PC on the screen.

Any documents being shared during the meeting would need to be downloaded to the screen via USB memory stick.

There would be no need for a laptop to be connected as everything would be operated via the wireless keyboard and mouse connected to the screen.

Under normal circumstances this set up would give the option of seven delegates around the Spencer Suite table for a hybrid meeting.

Due to the size of room and issues with audio quality, it would not be possible to use the set up described above in the Bridestones Suite.

Under normal circumstances the room would be set up in a U-shape for 20 councillors attending meetings with members of the public sitting at the rear or sides of the room.

This would need to be reduced to a U-shape for 12 councillors attending a Covid-19 socially distanced hybrid meeting and members of the public sitting at the rear or sides of the room.

Congleton Town Council has experimented hybrid meetings in the Bridestone Suite using the equipment they have available; however, the results are not of a good enough standard to confidently chair hybrid meetings at this time.

The town council has contacted a company that installed their Bosch conference system that is used for council meetings.

Congleton Town Council has received a £13,000 quote for a conference system to be installed that would work alongside the Bosch system.

Town Mayor, Sally Ann Holland, told the committee that the town council had previously explored the idea of acquiring sound boards that would reverberate the sound back down.

Cllr Holland queried whether the sound boards would form part of the mitigation works proposed.

Mr Worthington stated that there was not any sound dampening system included in the plans.

But he highlighted the tests carried out from moving the meetings from the Spencer Suite to the Campbell Suite, made an "unbelievable" difference to the sound quality.

Mr Worthington claimed that was due to the Campbell Suite ceiling being much lower than the other rooms in the town hall.

Mr Worthington added: "Which ever system we were to look at in the Bridestones and certainly the main hall, we are still going to have an issue.

"That is something we are going to have to look at to add on top of this quote."

Cllr Holland requested that Mr Worthington looked into that rather than "spending all this money" and finding that the sound boards needed to be implemented.

Cllr George Hayes said: "I am no great advocate of using platforms like this, I understand it limits the conversation which can be had and there are additional barriers, but I do think we have got to take a bit of a check here as to where we are at and the situation we are in.

"The situation in Cheshire East is not getting any better at the moment, the risk remains if not higher then it was when we first moved to virtual meetings.

"As much as sitting 2m away restricts the potential contagion of the virus, it does not eliminate as me sitting in my home would do.

"I personally believe for a cost of £13,000, I would rather try and continue embracing technology then spending public money for the sake of however long this situation may continue to go, into a position that would put all 20 of us, plus the officers of this council in a higher risk.

"I cannot be supporting this investment as much as technology brings its own challenges, I do believe it's the unfortunate reality of the situation."

Cllr Robert Douglas felt that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the community doing "green things" and working remotely, something that he felt would never have happened before.

Cllr Douglas felt the town council should not just be opting for face-to-face meetings in the long-term, but instead would get a higher attendance rate with councillors who are away, on holiday, working or doing childcare being able to attend by considering a partial face-to-face and Zoom meeting strategy long-term.

Cllr Holland said: "I do think it is important we are inclusive, let's move forward into the future and I think this would be a great asset and we do need to invest in it.

"We are going to be facilitating meetings in a whole different way in the future and this is one of the pluses that Covid has brought for us."

Cllr Amanda Martin informed councillors that her husband was 88-years-old and she was being "very careful" due to Covid.

Cllr Martin continued: "I think we need to be better safe than sorry, if people really want to purchase this technology with the view to using it in the future then I am good with that.

"But I don't think the government restrictions are going to be eased around here anytime soon and looking at the way the number of infections in Cheshire East has tripled in two weeks, I don't think we should be thinking about easing up at all.

"It's not getting better, it is getting worst and we need to bear that in mind."

David McGifford, Chief Officer for the town council, felt that the investment could be what the town council needed to attract extra business into the town hall.

Mr McGifford told the meeting that the investment was not seen as a "need" but more of an "opportunity" at this moment.

The majority of councillors were in favour of having committee meetings held at the town hall with remote login via Zoom.

Councillors agreed that Mr Worthington and Mr McGifford would continue to investigate the prospect of purchasing a conference system.

However, a decision on whether to approve a £13,000 investment for a conference system would be decided by the full council.