Frustrated villagers are still not getting parcels due to have been delivered in time for Christmas Day.

Annoyed resident Kim Bartlett, who has five outstanding parcels for war-torn Ukrainians, said: ‘The whole village has suffered from non-delivery or late delivery, of up to four weeks, since November.

‘It is so poor I have stopped ordering from companies that use Evri as a delivery partner.’

She added: ‘Some of these parcels were presents for my neighbours to take to Ukraine for those who are in desperate need so the deadline for getting items to them was missed.’

She contacted Evri complaining about ‘poor service’ and received an apology after Evri chief executive Martijn De Lange stepped in.

Customer services said: ‘Martijn has personally asked me to investigate this matter on his behalf. I am extremely sorry to hear that your parcels have not arrived on the estimated delivery time, I can imagine how frustrating it must be for you and I would feel the same way if I was in your shoes.

‘The festive period have created a surge in parcel volumes, and this has resulted in some parcels being delayed in our depot.

‘In the unlikely event that your parcels are not delivered within the next 10 days please contact the sender.’

One Princetown resident has even taken on the deliveries himself, on top of his job as a Dartmoor pub chef, resulting in him working very long days.

The anonymous benefactor recruited a friend to do the driving, while he delivers long-awaited Christmas parcels from the courier Evri to villagers on foot.

He said: ‘I have a little girl and understand how parents would feel not to have presents on Christmas Day.’