Many thanks for your suggestions to what is quite a unique problem.

I totally understand the comments about international standards, unfortunately numbering blank pages is something that isn't done, which is why this even page number on physically page 1 of a document exists.

The good news is these are minutes so there is no Table of Contents, so manipulating the page counter for physical and printing purposes seems the best course of action. I've done some experimentation with, and I will continue to play with this as it looks the least complicated to factor into a template.

Many thanks for all your time and suggestions, much appreciated.

Steve