Staff are patrolling four blocks at Lancashire Hill in Stockport '24 hours a day' over major concerns about fire safety, a councillor has said.

Flats in the neighbourhood are managed by social housing landlord Stockport Homes who were accused of 'serious mismanagement' as the council agreed to launch an investigation into the situation.

During a meeting at Stockport town hall on January 15, Councillor James Frizzell said issues with fire doors and ventilation systems have caused alarm about safety.

It is understood that the buildings impacted are Clarkthorn Terrace, The Longsons, The Bentleys, and Stonemill Terrace.

A Stockport Homes spokesperson said: "We are deeply disappointed about the recent issues at Lancashire Hill and are taking them extremely seriously.

"An independent review will be undertaken to fully understand what has happened and ensure lessons are acted upon. 

"In the meantime, repairs are already underway, and 24‑hour building safety patrols remain in place until all work is completed as soon as possible.

"Residents are being kept fully informed throughout, and we continue to work closely with them to ensure safety standards are met and maintained at all times."

The landlord confirmed that no other compliance notices or concerns have been raised by the Building Safety Regulator regarding its other buildings.

The social housing landlord also explained that it is carrying out additional technical work requested by the national Building Safety Regulator as part of its new assessment process.

Cllr Frizzell said: "Just before Christmas, I received notification of a change in the fire strategy at four blocks in Lancashire Hill from 'stay put' to 'simultaneous evacuation.'

"The reason given is due to the absence of fire doors in key locations and compartmentation deficiencies within the ventilation systems of all four buildings.

"The consequence of this is that for the next six months at least, fire safety staff have been employed to patrol the buildings 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

"My understanding is that this costly interim measure will be in place until remedial works are carried out, and/or fire alarms are installed in the buildings."

He went on to say that there was a fire in a blocked bin chute at one of the blocks on January 7, despite the blockage being reported by residents 'on Boxing Day and December 30', in a building where the fire doors 'are not yet up to the required standard.'

He added: "Is this another failure of safety protocols that it was blocked for nearly two weeks?"

Cllr Jake Austin, Stockport council's cabinet member for housing, said there will be a probe into the situation over fire safety at Lancashire Hill.

He added: "We acted quickly with Stockport Homes as soon as we became aware of the issue. I'm confident in the joint action plan now in place and in the hard work by council and Stockport Homes staff to keep residents safe.

"I've written to the Chair of Stockport Homes to ask that they work closely with us on an investigation, so we can learn from this and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Cllr Asa Caton said he identified fire safety issues at the Hollywood Towers building in Edgeley three years ago when he was elected.

He added: "At that point I was assured by Stockport Homes that they had reassessed every high-rise block in the estate.

"So I'm actually really angry and frustrated that this has now come back to the fore, especially after a period when personally I felt things were being turned around at Stockport Homes.

"I'm now back in a position where I'm going to struggle to trust anything that we hear from Stockport Homes, I'm not sure how we turn this back around."

Stockport Homes is owned by the council and manages more than 12,000 properties around the borough.