AN elderly couple were plagued by out-of-hours calls to an emergency town hall number after their phone number appeared on a website by mistake.

Freda and John Thomason, who live on Victoria Road, Accrington, were confused when they started receiving calls from people trying to reach Burnley Council during the evening and at weekends.

The couple received around four calls a week to their landline, which is just one digit different from Burnley Council’s correct emergency number.

Freda, 84, said: “It went on for quite a number of weeks.

“There was nothing objectionable, but people were ringing until about 10 at night. They wanted to know if this was Burnley Council.

“Somebody told me it was on the website. I don’t have a computer so I wouldn’t know.

“It’s just puzzling how it happened. How did they get this number to put on their website?”

After one caller told Freda where they had found the number, she contacted the council and asked them to change it.

She said: “I was thinking it’s time Burnley Council know about this so I rang the council and asked if they could rectify it.”

Sharon Hargraves, Burnley Council’s head of customer service, said: “A simple human error was made during the transfer of information from the old council website to the new one.

“It was corrected as soon as it was brought to our attention.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused and we will be sending a bouquet of flowers to the couple as a way of apology.”