A community have been left without cards or letters for up to two weeks as Christmas approaches.

Households say no post has been coming out of the Kilburn sorting office in Cambridge Road which serves Fortune Green, West Hampstead and Kilburn wards.

People say they have been receiving parcels but no letters or bills - with cards and NHS letters among the items not delivered.

The Royal Mail says deliveries were affected by "high levels of sickness and vacancies" in the area but that the service should improve.

West Hampstead councillor Sharon Hardwick, who lives in the ward, said there had been a "deafening silence" from the company.

She said she did not realise there was a problem until she realised there was a lack of work-related post arriving for her partner, who normally receives lots.

"It takes you a while to realise you're not getting post and I think that's what's been happening to all of us," she said.

When she spoke to others on WhatsApp, she realised many others were affected.

"We all talk to each other and we realised it's been weeks and meanwhile there's a deafening silence from Royal Mail and no apology," she added.

She said one resident had been waiting for a child's Oyster card to come through, others were awaiting bank cards and one a weekly magazine subscription.

"Knowing my neighbours and residents, that's going to mean birthday and Christmas cards won't have been delivered, NHS letters won't have been delivered," she said.

"NHS letters can be life-changing; people will be missing appointments. Some people are signed up digitally but not everybody is."

A first class stamp now costs £1.25  - "as much as the cards, and there's still no service" the Labour councillor added.

She warned: "I'm assuming there's going to be a backlog and this is the busiest season for Royal Mail. 

"It's very frustrating. We're in a weird world with social isolation and people rely on cards to keep them going.

"Hopefully they will sort it out. We've had a postal service for 200 years, it's not rocket science."

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We can confirm deliveries in these areas have unfortunately been affected by high levels of sickness and vacancies in the local delivery office over the last two weeks. 

"Whilst we do our best to deliver every day, we do rotate some routes to ensure each address receives a delivery regularly.

"We expect some of the service to improve over the next few days.”