Registrar team celebrate UK’s first National Registrar’s Day

Bridgend County Borough Council’s register office team have come together to celebrate the UK’s first National Registrar’s Day.

The event aims to celebrate all those who work tirelessly to register births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships as well as to thank them for their continued efforts during the coronavirus pandemic.

At Bridgend Register Office, the team celebrated with a socially-distanced coffee to catch up and reflect on the past year, which has seen them take on the challenges of the pandemic as well as an office move.

In addition to their statutory duties, the team have been supporting the EU Settlement Scheme by providing an ID scanning service for European citizens living throughout South Wales.

In July last year, the team moved into all-new premises at the Civic Offices in Bridgend town centre which features a larger ceremony room and a picturesque pagoda to provide newly married couples with the perfect spot for a photo.

Since the move, the team have undertaken over 250 marriages and have plenty more planned in the months to come.

Jodie Absalom, the Superintendent Registrar, said: “We’re as busy as we’ve ever been. We can do 10-15 marriages a week and we’re expecting the coming months to be very, very busy. This August is set to be the busiest we’ve seen for a very long time, but we’re ready for the challenge.

"People love the new pagoda, we worked really closely with the builders to make sure it was just right. It’s even got sound proofing to block out the sound of cars travelling past. It’s the first thing people see when they arrive at the register office, so it had to look good and it really does.

“We’re working very differently to how we usually worked before Covid.

“And we have worked extremely hard to clear the backlog. We’ve changed the way we do things. For example, deaths can be recorded over the phone now without having to meet face to face.

“That has been very helpful for us, and it also means people can register the deaths of their loved ones from abroad without having to travel here to do it.

“With births, we’re working flat out to ensure the three months pandemic backlog can be cleared, and we’re really on top of that now.”

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the registrar team for all their hard work over what has been an extremely difficult time.

We welcome the inaugural National Registrars Day, providing an opportunity to celebrate and recognise all the incredible work the entire team does day by day.

Councillor Dhanisha Patel, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations