Con­cerns over bu­reau­crat­ic de­lays, an un­opened state fa­cil­i­ty and the slow de­liv­ery of pub­lic as­sis­tance to vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens were among the is­sues raised by Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) po­lit­i­cal leader and Ari­ma MP Pen­ne­lope Beck­les dur­ing a thanks­giv­ing ser­vice mark­ing the 138th an­niver­sary of the roy­al char­tered bor­ough.

The ser­vice was held at Bethel World Out­reach Min­istries and was at­tend­ed by mem­bers of the Ari­ma Bor­ough Coun­cil, re­li­gious lead­ers and parish­ioners.

Beck­les high­light­ed con­cerns about a mod­ern so­cial de­vel­op­ment of­fice lo­cat­ed near the Ari­ma mar­ket, which she said re­mains un­opened and in­ac­ces­si­ble to the pub­lic de­spite be­ing ful­ly equipped.