PATRICK Madley was shocked to find he had to travel to Gloucester to register the death of a family member instead of Cinderford.

Mr Madley, from Mile End, said he could not get an appointment within the five days required by law to register a death and could only consider Gloucester or Cheltenham in the timeframe.

"I was shocked to be told that the earliest appointment at Cinderford was Thursday and that this exceeded the five-day limit after death to register," he said.

"The lady at the office said they now had to turn a blind eye to registrations that were a day or two late.

"Is there a hidden agenda to close the Cinderford office as I can't believe their diary is so full?"

Cinderford town councillors branded it "obscene" that families could not secure an appointment at the Forest's last remaining register office. They will be making a formal complaint to the Government Ombudsmen about the situation.

"To have this kind of obstacle put in front of people at a time like they are going through is obscene," said Councillor Bernie O'Neill.

Council chairman Graham Morgan claimed the county council was deliberately sending people away to use low visitor numbers to justify eventually closing it.

"Someone whose mother had died called up on Monday to complain, saying they had wanted to use the Cinderford office but couldn't," said Lynda Thomas, clerk of the town council.

"It's pretty appalling that they closed the register offices in Coleford and Lydney.

"The Forest has a big enough population of 80,000 so should have a local office which is sufficiently staffed."

Funeral director Roger Barnard said: "It used to be that if you died in the Forest, Gloucester or Cheltenham the death had to be registered in that same place.

"That's not the case now and people should be able to use their local register office in the Forest. But it looks like this is another of our local services that will go."

County councillor Will Windsor-Clive said: "We have no plans to cut back the registration service.

"There have been some difficulties recently, which have been due to staff shortages. We apologise for any inconvenience."