Kenilworth's mayor has encouraged residents to continue to 'take part' in local democracy as Kenilworth Town Council readies itself to meet in person once again.

Town councillors will also surely be celebrating the return to face-to-face meetings as the need to shout "you are on mute" 30 times a meeting will be forgotten.

This comes as KTC announced this week that the first meeting in person of 2021 will take place on Thursday, June 17.

Councils across the UK will begin to congregate in person once again in the coming months, after over a year of meeting virtually.

During the first national lockdown last year The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus)

Regulations 2020 were passed, ensuring that all local government meetings went ahead online. However, the legislation does not carry after May 7, thus allowing local councils to meet in person again.

The decision not to continue with such meetings has come under criticism from some sources.

Chair of the Local Government Association Cllr James Jamieson, said reintroducing face-to-face meetings "could easily involve up to 200 people in one room, even before adding in members of the public and reporters" - so their return would pose a "significant challenge" to councils to make them Covid-secure.

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However, Mayor of Kenilworth Cllr Richard Dickson said: "obviously it will be good to see fellow councillors and council staff once again after May.

"However I hope we'll still get local residents wanting to observe as they have done with our online meetings whether it's for full council or either the planning or finance and general services committee meetings.

"Democracy depends on having as much openness and transparency as possible and its future lies in people being willing and able to take part."