A large number of Penarth and Sully residents have experienced lengthy delays on their Royal Mail packages over the past few days.

To understand why, Nub News spoke to a Royal Mail customer service staff member, who told us:

"There have been reports through with regards to the issues with staffing levels in the Penarth Road sorting office.

"The delays seem to be taking place one the packages arrive in that office and we don't know if this will improve in the near future.

"But yes, there have been issues over the past few days. The area is being partially covered."

The staff member was unable to to shed light on precisely why the Penarth Road sorting office is experiencing a staff shortage.

However, a man who claims to work in the sorting office has written a Facebook post that offers an explanation. Here it is in full:

"I work in the mail centre on Penarth road. It isn't really my place to say but seeing some of the posts about the post, or lack thereof, I thought I'd just relay a few things about what has gone on recently in both my office and some of the surrounding offices to help dispel some rumours and hopefully give people some understanding about why their parcels and post maybe running later than usual.

"So some background: Penarth delivery office in Albert road, is a small, intimate and very outdated office in the centre of Penarth that doesn't exactly lend itself to social distancing. Because of this, they have had to implement different start times to avoid too many people in the office at one time.

"Also, because of distancing measures, normally two people would share a van, but now they have to work alone to help reduce the virus spread. I know a number of people have left the office recently, mainly through retirement (non-COVID-related).

"Recruitment has taken place but the nine or so members of staff that were taken on have all but left because of how physically demanding the job has become and how flexible you are required to be with workloads and shift patterns etc. It's not a job for everyone and the resources they have left are spread pretty thin.

"I know some of the decisions made will not be popular for everyone and believe me they are trying to deliver all that they can, but sometimes they have to prioritise certain things so parcels usually come first.

"Royal Mail is taking this seriously, I know they are working with a local councillor to try and get around as many problems as they can.

"With regards to the outbreak in the Mail centre in Penarth road, there have been a number of positive cases.

"I just wanted to reassure people, not as a spokesperson of Royal Mail but as a community member, that they are not holding mail back because of COVID. Unfortunately, processing parcels does take a lot longer than usual when you have to adhere to distancing guidelines but in the main part there is no backlog there.

"The management team and staff have been working closely with public health wales to help identify where improvements can be made to work as safely as possible but inevitably people will need to self isolate at times to ensure the safety of themselves, their colleagues and their families.

"Parcel volumes are unseasonably high at the moment and there isn't a postman or woman I know that hasn't done their very best to keep mail deliveries as "normal" as they possibly can for their customers for the last 8 months.

"I understand exactly how frustrating it is not to get the things we've paid for, or letters we are expecting, but please bare with, all the postmen and women have been doing a fantastic job in some of the most demanding times we will ever see in our lifetimes.

Stay safe"