Hertfordshire County Council cannot continue with remote meetings after temporary measures brought in due to the pandemic expire next month, the High Court has ruled.

The ruling extends to all local authorities in England.

As part of the Coronavirus Act 2020, mandatory local authority meetings could be conducted remotely from April 2020 until May 7, 2021.

During the pandemic, hundreds of meetings have been held online, including at Handforth Parish Council, which shot to fame after an online call where councillors traded insults went viral.

Hertfordshire County Council brought a bid against the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to have the measures, introduced in secondary legislation, extended.

At a hearing last week, Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Chamberlain were asked to consider whether remote meetings in England could continue under existing 1972 legislation regulating local government.

MHCLG was “supportive in principle” of the proposed claim, arguing it could be met by the court giving its opinion on what “meeting”, “place” and “present” mean in the existing law.

Lawyers for Hertfordshire County Council argued that the word “place” could include metaphorical places such as cyberspace or a website.

However, the judges dismissed the claim, concluding that primary legislation would be needed to extend the use of remote meetings.

In a ruling on Wednesday, they said: “We can readily accept that ‘meeting’ can in some context encompass virtual or remote meetings: since March 2020 it has become common to refer to a ‘Zoom meeting’.

“But in other contexts, ‘meeting’ would not carry that meaning. If a meeting is to be ‘either in or outside London’ one would not expect it to be conducted online.”

The pair said local authority gatherings are an important part of government and require certainty on what it means to attend a meeting.

They added that after the regulations expire “such meetings must take place at a single, specified geographical location; attending a meeting at such a location means physically going to it, and being ‘present’ at such a meeting involves physical presence at that location”.

The judges continued: “The decision whether to permit some or all local authority meetings to be conducted remotely, and if so, how and subject to what safeguards, involves difficult policy choices on which there is likely to be a range of competing views.

“These choices have been made legislatively for Scotland by the Scottish Parliament and for Wales by the Senedd. In England, they are for Parliament, not the courts.”

After the ruling, James Jamieson, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “It is very disappointing that this last avenue to allow councils to hold online and hybrid meetings whilst Covid-19 restrictions are still in force has not been successful.

“Councils, by law, have to hold annual meetings within 21 days following local elections so many will now have to use very large external venues to allow all members of the council to meet in person.

“Councils want to continue to have powers to hold online and hybrid meetings even when restrictions have been lifted.”

He added: “The Government gave clear evidence at the hearing in support of allowing the option of online and hybrid meetings.

“Unfortunately, the judgment is clear that primary legislation is needed to allow councils to use technology to hold meetings.”