ON the face of it, people in Wantage getting letters more than ten years late sounds like a funny story.

The jokes about things getting lost in the post write themselves.

And, indeed, for some people it is just a funny episode – a bill from 2008 that you’d better get around to paying, or a birthday present which you finally have to admit aunty really did send after all.

The cheque for £151 must have raised a smile at least, we hope.

But for others, it’s not been so funny: the woman who said she received a card from her now-deceased mother, for example, and no doubt there are others who have had the wind slightly knocked out of their sails by a blast from the past.

We also need to be careful not to start throwing around accusations about exactly who is to blame and how.

While we wait for Royal Mail to provide more of an explanation about what happened here, all we know is that these letters were discovered at the home of a former employee.

The natural first assumption is that whoever this worker was, they intentionally hoarded other people’s private post for some unknown reason.

If that is the case, then we are lucky that all these packages now being delivered were not opened or destroyed.

However we don't know if that is exactly what happened.

An act as unusual as this might well be expected to raise questions about the mental health of the Royal Mail employee in question.

We are also still waiting to hear exactly how all of this suddenly came to light after more than a decade.

If it is because the person in question has passed away then there is a grieving family who we must consider.

Many people in Wantage, however, are understandably upset and angry about this whole fiasco and are looking for answers, which is why we need Royal Mail to provide a proper explanation as soon as it is able to - and not in ten years' time.