New post office opens on southside
The Paslow building may be a national landmark, but as the only full-fledged post office in Belize City, it often misses the mark in terms of convenience. That situation changed today as a new branch opened its doors across town. Jacqueline Woods reports.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The Queen Square Post Office will serve approximately forty thousand southside residents, who will no longer have to trek over the bridge to mail a letter or pick up a parcel.
Fay Butler, Supervisor, Queen Square Post Office
“I think a lot of people will be very grateful for this service, that it’s closer. Belize City is expanding backwards now, so we need to have an office that is easily accessible to people.”
Besides the basic postal services, there are plans to provide customers with specialised services including Internet and email.
However, those areas have not yet been finalised.
Compton Hinkson, Postmaster General
“We will look at it and see how the demand is for that. We have already installed necessaries, so with the service in line, if the demand is there for it, hopefully it will be there. But we have to do a little trial and see what will be the reaction of the residents of this area. Another thing we would want to do, is to collect electricity bills, water bills, if it is possible, we can negotiate with the various companies to see if they’d be willing for us to transact that business on their behalf.”
The building is the first of several branches to be constructed in the city. Dickie Bradley, Minister of Housing, with responsibility for the post office, says government is decentralising specific services to make them more accessible to people.
Dickie Bradley, Minister Responsible for Post Offices
“We are in terms of the ministries, taking a hard look at both the National Fire Service and the Postal Services. Because you can have branch offices in the neighbourhood and be able to effectively carry out the services just as well as centralising it in one area, which is very inconvenient for the elderly and other persons.”
The Queen Square Post Office is situated at the corner of Dolphin and Racoon Streets and will be opened from 8:00a.m to 5:00p.m. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
This weekend, the new postage stamps for the Christmas season should arrive. According to Postmaster General Compton Hinkson, the stamps were suppose to be unveiled during today’s ceremonies, but the shipment from the printer in England has been delayed by complications stemming from the September eleventh bombings and anthrax attacks in the United States.
