Exactly but some things come at a cost. Not everything is free of charge. In the current economic climate it is not unreasonable to pay a bit more. If the number of registrations goes down in Salford it may be that we lose even more of the service in Salford and will have to pay even more for certificate copies.
No one has mentioned free access.
The cost of providing certificates is examined annually and the fee set. The fee has been recently increased due in part to the present economic crisis.
Not content with receiving the statutory fee Salford want to add a further charge.
It is that additional charge that is wrong as it is specifically exempted from being levied on statutory duty.
People of Salford will continue to have children, get married and die in Salford whether the maternity and neonatal unit remains open or is closed.
The fee one pays for the registrations does not depend on numbers but is set nationally by statutory instrument.
In fact it could be argued that there could be more deaths registered if the unit was closed, which would rather defeat your claim.
For the record I hope you are successful in keeping it open.
Cheers
Guy
