Meanwhile, a resident has written to the chief executive to outline his “grave concerns”.

Perth and Kinross council today issued an apology for the “oversight”.

The neighbour of the Alyth woman said, “Perth and Kinross council issue panic alarms to elderly people in case of emergency.

“They also give out a help sheet with contact details should anything go wrong with the alarm.

“My neighbour was having a problem with her alarm, so I thought I would phone the council on her behalf to ensure the problem was rectified.

“After trying unsuccessfully to get through to the number provided for nearly an hour, I came to the conclusion it was out of operation.

“I tried phoning other council numbers and eventually got through to an answering machine, so I left a message.”

The resident said she was shocked when nobody phoned her back.

“You would have thought an incident such as this would have taken some kind of priority, but nobody called,” she said.

“Eventually I phoned again and managed to speak to somebody who merely said the woman who dealt with such problems was on holiday and the problem would be dealt with on her return.

“I was absolutely amazed — it seems utterly absurd this situation could be allowed to happen.

“It is extremely worrying and is putting elderly people at serious risk.”

The Alyth resident said it also came to light that the number she had first tried was redundant as the council had moved its offices — without letting elderly residents know.

“Obviously if an elderly person’s panic alarm is working fine they can press a button and the emergency services will attend.

“However, if there is a fault with the equipment, the council is the only place they can turn.

“I am glad I was able to help out my neighbour but I am very worried for other elderly people in the same situation — the consequences could be appalling,” she added.

When contacted by the Evening Telegraph, a council spokesman admitted that numbers had been changed and apologised for the situation.

“It was brought to the attention of Perth and Kinross Council’s community alarms service that following the service’s move from 1-3 High Street to Riverview House, Perth, a client was unable to make contact on the phone number originally issued,” he said.

“Although the fault was fixed the same day, the council would like to assure clients that all community alarms continue to work as normal and that the contact telephone number has changed from 476847 to 458065.

“However, as a result of this issue being brought to our attention we have today reinstated the previous number for a short period,” the spokesman continued. “Any client dialling 476847 will be met with a recorded message advising of the new telephone number.

“The council would like to apologise for this oversight and for any concern it may have caused,” he added.