PLANS are at any early stage to create an umbrella volunteer group in Middlewich.

The town council are hoping to form ‘Middlewich Hosts’, a town-wide volunteer scheme that helps other organisations in the area with a dedicated team of trained organisers.

The aim of the group would be to work in tandem with Middlewich’s existing volunteer organisations to provide assistance as and when they’re needed at events.

Cllr Pam Farrell, Middlewich Town Mayor, said: “This is at a very early stage but we’re excited about the idea.

“We just completely fell in love with the name to begin with. The idea of being a host sounds so much nicer than a volunteer.

“But what we hope this will do is bring the community closer together to make our event management run smoother.

“Rather than pulling people in to do a significant number of hours, it would be nice to have a wide number of people we can call on to help with events.

“We already have a really good background for this as we’ve got an abundance of great groups that can get this started.”

The idea is inspired by Knutsford Hosts, a town wide volunteer scheme that recently celebrated its third birthday.

The Knutsford group was created after the success of the London 2012 ‘Gamesmakers’, who had a dedicated team of community volunteers available for each event.

Cllr Jonathan Parry added: “Anything that brings volunteers together in the town has my support.

“We would need to make sure this executed and advertised correctly through all the relevant channels to make it positive step for our community groups.”

Cllr Farrell is currently waiting on confirmation of a meeting with Knutsford Hosts to discuss plans for the scheme further.

After that, the idea would then be brought either to the committee stage, or put towards a vote on at a town council meeting.