Births, Marriages and Deaths

The councils registrars are now offering more services:

Weddings

You can now book weddings and civil partnerships at Kingswood Civic Centre and Poole Court in Yate.

At Kingswood Civic Centre all ceremonies are restricted to only two adult witnesses as guests.

At Poole Court in Yate, ceremonies will start from October on Saturdays only, with a maximum of 10 guests permitted in the ceremony room including: the couple, two witnesses, any children or babies and one photographer (as applicable). This total number of guests does not include the registrars.

At both locations hand sanitisers will be provided and social distancing will be required throughout the ceremony. They are unable to allow photographs after the signing of the register in the ceremony rooms, however photographs outside the buildings for a few minutes are permitted, if social distancing is observed.

Please note that this is subject to government guidelines, which may change. All restrictions are in place to protect everyone’s safety during this continuing pandemic and to comply with guidance issued by Public Health England.

To book a wedding or civil partnership at Kingswood or Poole Court please contact 01454 863140

Births

Kingswood Civic Centre can now take birth registrations on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is currently the only available location in South Gloucestershire for registrations. You can book a birth registration here.

Deaths

The council is continuing to accept registrations of deaths by telephone. When you call to book an appointment, you will be asked to provide your contact phone number and name for a call back by the registrar.

Please make sure you are available to take the call back appointment, which will last about 30 minutes. You can book an appointment on 01454 863140.

Share your views on future of registration service

South Gloucestershire Council is reviewing the way it provides registration services for births, deaths and marriages.

Currently the service offers pre-booked appointments at Frenchay, Kingswood, Thornbury and Yate. The council now proposes to concentrate the service at two locations - Frenchay and either Kingswood or Thornbury.

You can find out more and have your say on the council's website. The consultation finishes on 3rd August.

The suggestion is that a service in two locations would be open much more of the week, as opposed to just a couple of days at Yate, but of course people would have to travel further to get there. Which would you rather have? A local service or an all-week service? Please have your say.

The proposal would not stop people getting married at Poole Court - that's a separate arrangement.

Town Council fights to keep Registrar service in Yate

As a cost-saving measure, South Glos Council last year announced plans to relocate the staff of the Registrar service from Poole Court to one of the council’s own offices, possibly Thornbury.

Before Yate Twon Council took over Poole Court, people had to register births and deaths at the health centre and marriages were conducted in Chipping Sodbury.

Cllr Chris Willmore said: "This is somewhere people use during the most traumatic time of their lives and we should be doing all we can to keep it here"

"People like coming here now. All I am concerned about is that if South Gloucestershire Council decide they have to move it, they make it somewhere that suits users"

"But my fear is this is not about the users, it is about bureaucracy"