With each passing day fears have grown that Percy the Potato – KentOnline’s Royal Mail test parcel – would spend Christmas at a sorting office.

But the under-fire postal system has today delivered the goods… albeit nine days later than promised.

Dozens of readers questioned if there was any point in sending cards or gifts for Christmas this year when we asked them about delays with the service.

The problem is particularly bad in the Medway, Malling and Maidstone areas, where it is reportedly taking weeks or even months to get deliveries.

So to bring some Christmas cheer, we posted Percy the Positive Potato along with a card from Painters Ash Post Office in Gravesend at 3.30pm on Friday, December 1.

The bundle should have been received at its destination – a friend’s house in West Malling – within two to three working days.

As we sent them quite late in the day on Friday we classed Saturday, December 2 as the first day, meaning it should have been delivered on Tuesday, December 6 at the latest.

However, almost a week after we posted Percy’s location was still unknown.

Despite our fears for our test dummy, our optimistic receiver did have a funny feeling that Percy might have a swift journey thanks to the package measuring more than 25mm wide.

This meant our lucky spud counted as a small parcel which have apparently been getting to West Malling in a much more timely manner than letters.

It is thought the issues with delays boil down to a lack of posties on rounds, rather than the mail not getting to the sorting office.

Sorting offices are typically open for a maximum of four hours – two in the morning and two in the afternoon – and are fully closed on Sundays.

But this afternoon, after 12 days, Percy and the card arrived at 4.45pm – nine days later than promised.

Earlier this month, regulators Ofcom fined Royal Mail £5.6 million for failing to meet its targets this financial year.

It is required to deliver 93% of first-class mail within one working day and 98.5% of second-class mail within three working days – its figures were 73.7% and 90.7%, respectively.

It has been speculated the company had opted to prioritise parcel deliveries over post, but Ofcom found no evidence of that and Royal Mail denied it.

A Royal Mail employee has even described the firm as a “sinking ship” as it puts more pressure on workers to go out on longer rounds with less time to complete them and managers tell them to prioritise deliveries.

He said he was once proud to wear the uniform, but is now embarrassed, saying the public “deserves better”.

Responding to KentOnline’s request for comment on the postie’s experience, a Royal Mail spokesperson denied the service prioritised parcel deliveries over post.

Responding to our questions about the delays in the county, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Throughout Kent, our teams are working extremely hard to ensure a consistent and reliable service to households this Christmas.

“Our employees are committed to serving their communities and we are proud of the work they are doing to sort, deliver and collect mail this festive period.

“We can confirm we have mail being delivered to homes daily with the vast majority arriving on time. If delays occur, we have dedicated teams in place to take immediate action.

“We have also hired 16,000 seasonal workers, increased our vehicle numbers and boosted our operational capacity with extra parcel sorting sites to manage demand during this peak period.”

It seems these measures might be having some success, with Percy now able to enjoy his well-deserved Christmas break.