A number of Stevenage’s residents are sharing their dismay at the recent lack of post and deliveries in parts of the town, as delivery services brace for the last weeks before Christmas.

Some people in the town are warning with Christmas just around the corner, they’re still waiting to receive orders that were placed with the national postal service, Royal Mail, weeks ago.

Residents from Great Ashby, Chells, Shephall, Poplars and Broadwater have all come together online to complain that their deliveries have been impacted by the significant delays.

Some say they have been waiting for more than two weeks to receive hotly anticipated parcels, post and deliveries in time for Christmas.

Commenting on the local social networking service, Next Door, one man from Shephall said: “Our postie tells us there’s a shortage of staff and that they often decide to deliver parcels only to clear out the storeroom and sacrifice letter deliveries.”

Another woman, from Bragbury End, added: “This is a joke as they can’t be bothered to deliver on time, yet charge the same for stamps.

“If you work from home some of your invoices arrive too late to be paid on time.”

And many are complaining that their questions have gone unanswered.

Julie Galloway, who lives in Chells, says only her letters have been delivered recently, and that whenever she tries to contact the company she gets a recorded message telling her the line is too busy.

Royal Mail’s online customer service team has previously warned of “coronavirus-related absences” affecting its services.

It said: “Despite our best efforts, exhaustive planning and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.

“This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices.

“In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can.”

Royal Mail have been contacted to provide a statement.

According to its website, Christmas is the busiest period of the year for Royal Mail – a time where they often hire thousands of temporary mail centre workers.