A Cheshire East councillor has asked whether the council would consider only recruiting new staff who are double jabbed to protect those who work in small teams.

Cllr David Marren (Shavington, Ind) asked the question during a Covid-update report at Thursday's meeting of the audit and governance committee.

"We all know the government has set in place legislation to make it mandatory for care home staff to be vaccinated and I do support that," said Cllr Marren.

"I don't think it applies to any other sector and I don't think it probably can apply to any other sector without legislation being in place.

"But I do wonder about whether it can be applied to the recruitment of new staff.

"I fully understand those people that are already in post you couldn't force vaccination and the threat of losing jobs, however in terms of recruiting new staff, that can be part of the selection criteria.

"I just wondered whether it is being considered or if somebody could consider it in terms of the way forward."

He added: "I only argue that point on the basis of some people work in very small teams like refuse collectors, for example.

"Three people in a cab. I would be nervous if I was sharing a cab with people that weren't vaccinated for example.

"I know that's an Ansa issue, but there are bound to be small teams that the council have where people are working closely together and some people will be, I think, rightly nervous."

Jane Burns, executive director of corporate services , said: "We have no plans to require staff to have vaccinations in any of those roles.

"We are very strongly encouraging vaccination take-up and I think that is appropriate more generally. It's also appropriate because we are responsible for public health.

"If we were to insist we would have to go through a formal consultation so there are no plans to do that at the moment."

She said the council was also asking staff to take the flu vaccine.