Angry residents are demanding answers after loss of phone lines has seen them cut off from the world for almost a month.
People in three south Brechin streets lost their connection around Christmas and are still to regain it.
However, any work to remedy the situation may hinder motorists on an important route during the town’s long-awaited flood prevention work.
Esther Murray from Nursery Lane said she noticed her line was down when she tried to make a call on December 28.
She added: “We’ve been without a proper phone for three weeks and some of my neighbours are older people who have been waiting on calls from hospital and such like on a mobile phone. It’s not good enough.
“We’re pensioners as well my husband’s in his seventies. I’ve been a BT customer for over 40 years.
“I know of five other people who’ve spoken to me, near neighbours, but apparently it’s a wider problem.”
The situation became complicated when it emerged engineers will have to close Nursery Lane.
The multi-million-pound flood prevention scheme saw the closure of River Street and Witchden Road on January 12.
Traffic for the surrounding area has been channelled into the new Nursery Lane “link road”, set up to handle River Street’s load until the scheme finishes in March next year.
Middleton Park, Nursery Lane, Nursery Park and some residents on River Street are dependent on the road staying open for access.
However, Angus Council confirmed it had yet to be approached by BT over the issue.
Mrs Murray added: “Because of the flood prevention work that is going on, the engineer couldn’t get access down two manholes to fix the fault.
“He said cement had been put down in the way and he couldn’t get into it until Angus Council had given permission to close the road.
“I’ve had the council’s roads department on to me today and they are adamant that they’ve never had BT on with a request to close the road.”
The firm said it is “very sorry” for the delay in restoring service. A spokesman said: “The source of the fault was traced to a major cable running under a newly constructed road on Nursery Lane.
“The BT cable was damaged when the road was constructed.
“Openreach engineers tried to find alternative solutions to provide temporary phone service but these were not possible.
“BT engineers will liaise with the local authority to arrange closure of the new road and repair the damage to the cable.
“BT offers a free divert of incoming calls so customers don’t miss any incoming calls.
“We’ve also sent details of BT’s free priority fault repair scheme for vulnerable customers.”
The flood prevention scheme, described as the single largest civil engineering project in Angus, will see direct river defences constructed along the north bank of the South Esk.
The scheme will also see embankments raised and upgrades to the existing surface water and roads drainage in place, with three new submerged pump stations installed at the Inch, Brechin Bridge and East Mill.
The overall scheme is estimated to cost £16 million.