In recent months Debden residents have been not receiving all of their post.

Post being process at the Debden Sorting Office in Impromo Park has increasingly been delayed and in some cases has not been delivered at all.

The Royal Mail has claimed staff shortages due to coronavirus coupled with an “exceptionally high volume” of parcels have caused delays to the service.

Residents posting on the Nextdoor community website say the problem is widespread and many have missed vital mail including hospital appointments.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We want to reassure our customers that thanks to the extraordinary dedication of all our people, the support of the 33,000 extra temporary staff we have taken on, and the significant extra investment we have made in our network, we are in a good position to deliver items posted before the last recommended posting dates in time for Christmas.

“The introduction of new coronavirus rules on December 19 mean that we are expecting even higher volumes of mail over the next few days, particularly in areas impacted by the toughest restrictions, so if anyone has any items they still need to send they should do that as soon as possible. We anticipate we will deliver more UK parcels in these three and a half weeks than some of our competitors typically handle in an entire year.

“Every single parcel, letter and card is important to us. Our amazing postmen and postwomen, who have kept the UK connected throughout the pandemic and two lockdowns, are doing everything necessary to get letters and parcels to everyone ahead of Christmas”.