£10 charge for record searches

5:27pm Saturday 7th April 2007

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GENEALOGISTS are to be charged £10 for burial searches in Blaenau Gwent.

The charge has been brought in by Blaenau Gwent Council following a large number of requests for such information.

At a meeting of the council's executive committee, members received a report into the charge and voted in favour of the proposal.

It said that over the past couple of years there had been a notable increase in requests from members of the public to search burial records.

From April 2006 approximately 100 requests were received, a 25 per cent increase on the previous year's requests.

These searches can be very time consuming for the staff of the council's sundry accounts section.

The cost will be the same irrespective of how many burial records were searched per request and requests for general enquiries are to remain free of charge.

The money will then be put back into improving the service for the public.

Ann Macey, of the Gwent Family History Society, thinks the charge is a good idea if it improves the service.

"The searches can take an awful lot of time to complete," she said.

"A small charge like this will enable the records services to be improved for the benefit of everyone."

Charges for records search vary in the rest of Gwent: Caerphilly - £24; Monmouthshire - free; Torfaen - free; Newport - information not available.