Royal Mail launched today the first of a completely new design of solar-powered parcel postbox.  Sited outside Ulster University’s Birley Building in Belfast ‘s York Street, it is the first parcel postbox in Northern Ireland in Northern Ireland to bear the cipher of King Charles III and has a special plaque attached to record the event.

Students from Belfast Royal Academy witnessed the unveiling of the new postbox and were the first to use it when they posted a parcel of letters they had been asked to write to the King about what they do to protect the environment in school.

Six hundred  of this new type of postbox will be installed over the next six months in town centres, on new housing developments and outside Royal Mail Delivery Offices. Further installations are planned across the UK in locations like Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Tyneside.

The boxes are intended to make posting parcels easier for online shoppers, small businesses and the growing number of people using second-hand marketplaces. They allow customers to send and return pre‑labelled parcels as well as to post letters through a separate aperture on the front of the box.

The new parcel postbox is eight-sided, and has a drop down drawer on the front into which parcels are deposited. A start button and a barcode scanner are located on the front above the King’s cipher, and the box has a black cap which incorporates a solar-panel and aerial.

These parcel postboxes are the first that are able to accept medium-sized parcels up to 24cm high, 48cm long and 43cm wide. Existing parcel postboxes accept parcels up to 16cm x 44cm x 35cm, and traditional cast iron postboxes that have been converted to accept parcels can only accept a maximum size of 13.6cm x 35.5cm x 25cm.