A new national website highlighting public notices placed in regional newspapers has been launched in full.

The Public Notice Portal was created by regional and national press trade body the News Media Association last year in a soft launch.

The site now displays more than 10,000 live notices at any given time with an average of 2,500 notices now being added by local publishers every week.

The portal is fully searchable by postcode, type of notice, and offers notifications for users who have signed up to receive alerts about particular types of notices, or notices relating to a specific geographic area.

It has been developed by the local news media industry – including Reach plc which built the website – with £1m from the Google News Initiative.

Newsquest chief executive Henry Faure Walker, pictured, said: “Highly trusted local news media has a critical role to play in ensuring public notices reach as many people in local communities as possible, ensuring the fullest possible scrutiny of the information they contain.

“As a sector, we have invested in the Public Notice Portal to further enhance and strengthen the role of local news media in promoting public notices by leveraging our large digital audiences.”

Media Minister Sir John Whittingdale added: “Newspapers remain a vital source of trusted information about local government decision-making, including through the delivery of public notices.

“The Public Notice Portal is an excellent example of innovation from our local news sector which will support local democracy by boosting online visibility of this essential information.

“Ensuring the activities of all local authorities are recorded in the portal will be key to its success, so I encourage local authorities and local press to work together to bring the full benefits of this tool to people across the UK.”

Thee move comes after the UK Government this week ruled out removing public notices from printed newspapers.