A woman who runs her own small business has condemned Royal Mail bosses for not doing more to solve its workers' dispute over pay and conditions.

Lucy Riley, who runs Hadleigh Wax Melts from her home in Holborough Road, Snodland, said the repeated strike action by post-workers was causing havoc for her business – and for thousands of other small businesses across the country.

Ms Riley makes her own wax melts and candles in different fragrances and sells them online. She is dependent on the Royal Mail parcel service to deliver her products to her customers.

She said: "The delays have just been astronomical. I pay for a next-day delivery but it has been taking two or three weeks sometimes."

Ms Riley was quick to emphasise that she was not blaming the postal workers. She said: "I fully support the posties' strike – and their desire for fair conditions and fair pay.

"I have friends in the industry and I back them. I understand that they don't want to be doing what they are doing."

But she said: "I feel very let down by the Royal Mail bosses.

"They have known since August that these strikes were coming, but they seem to have made no contingency plans."

"The delays are having such a huge effect on small businesses like mine."

Ms Riley has run her business for three years, and says that Christmas is always her busiest time of the year.

She said: "Most of what I am selling at the moment are Christmas gifts.

"I've always used the Royal Mail for deliveries, because they usually offer such a reliable service – they don't lob parcels over the garden gate, or stuff them in the letterbox; they wait to get a signature for delivery."

But it has all gone wrong for her. She said: "Using the tracker service I can see that a number of my orders have been sitting in the sorting office for 15 days."

She said: "I work so hard to get my orders out of the door and on the way to customers as quickly as possible. To have them then sit in the sorting office is so disheartening.

"Luckily, my customers have been very understanding."

But with Royal Mail saying the last first class parcel post for delivery by Christmas is on Friday, December 16, Ms Riley is actually telling her customers that last orders will be this Sunday, because she doesn't trust Royal Mail's delivery promises.

Members of the Communications Workers Union will be on strike on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday next week, and on December 23 and Christmas Eve.

Ms Riley she had looked at other delivery contractors such as Evri and Yodl, but they were all more expensive.

She said: "I already absorb much of the postal cost myself. I can't ask customers to pay £6 or £7 delivery on an order that is only a couple of pounds anyway.

Ms Riley said: "I really hope that the bosses at Royal Mail realise how important their workers are to small businesses.

"This is no way a moan at the posties, it is a plea to Royal Mail: listen to your employees."