Staff at Welsh councils have been keeping delivery services busy with visits to the ecommerce sites of retailers like Amazon, Argos and Next.

A freedom of information request from the South Wales Echo revealed that council staff count the online shopping providers among their 100 most-visited sites.

Rhondda Cynon Taf council workers have all three of the retailers in the top 100.

A spokeswoman for the council said: "Staff are allowed to access the web through the council's internet connection, but only in strict accordance with our internet usage policy."

She added that most incidences of internet usage occurred outside of key working periods, such as at lunchtime.

Cardiff Council, which also had workers visiting sites such as Amazon, warned disciplinary procedure will be taken if inappropriate internet usage became an issue.

A survey from Ipswitch Network Management Division recently revealed some employees were spending up to two hours a day shopping online for Christmas presents.

Author:  Adrian Medland