The closure of Pembrokeshire’s registrar outstations will make things more difficult for grieving families, says a Milford Haven undertaker.

Services at the outstations, which registered births and deaths at Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven, Fishguard, Tenby and Narberth, have been suspended since last summer, due to long term staff illness. A letter sent to funeral directors on Monday (January 12) by the county council’s monitoring officer, Laurence Harding, has said that the service will not recommence due to “the current economic climate”.

The letter also states that footfall at the outstations, which were open once a week, has fallen over the last five years and that changes in maternity services have had an impact on the financial viability of registering births at outstations.

It added that the registration service at Cherry Grove offers improved facilities and increased appointment availability and that outstations were an expensive form of service provision which did not offer the public a better service.

Shane Morgan of Tom Newing and Sons, Milford Haven, says the office at Cherry Grove is particularly difficult for certain people to access.

“For the older people, people who haven’t got a car or people who are disabled, the outreach stations were easier to get to," he said. "People can get to Haverfordwest on the bus, but to get to Cherry Grove they have to walk up over the bridge which is difficult for elderly and disabled people. At least when it was in Tower Hill the bus used to stop outside.”

He said that many people now have to travel at least 45 minutes to the registrar’s office.

“The council shouldn’t look at this as something where they can claw back money,” he said. “This should be a service provided by the authority for families that want to register a birth or death.

“When you go out and tell people they have to go to Haverfordwest they go: ‘not Haverfordwest again’. It makes things much more difficult.”

He added that in his experience Cherry Grove does not provide increased appointment availability, with families currently having to wait up to four days before they can see a registrar.

“We used to use the outstations all the time,” he said. “It should be kept as it was not done away with. I don’t think this should come under cost-cutting. They should provide the service, not just for the bereaved but for everybody.”