A councillor says the local authority should consider knocking down all of its high-rise blocks in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Work costing £1 million is set to be carried out on the Canterbury district's four multi-storey buildings after fire safety "issues" were identified by independent investigators.

Improvements will be made at Herne Bay's Margaret Court and Elizabeth Court, which has two blocks, and Whitstable's Windsor House, where sprinklers will be installed.

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But Cllr Ashley Clark (Con) has described the blocks as "inherently unsafe" and says the council "should be looking at knocking these bloody things down".

Speaking at a meeting of the council's Community Committee, he said: "I've always taken the view that to put people in a building that's higher than a fireman's ladder is inherently unsafe.
"That's why when I stay in a hotel I never stay above three floors – it's the limit I can knot the sheets together to get out.

"You can put sprinklers in there and all sorts of things, but if you’re six or seven floors up there are all these risks.

"I wonder whether in the long term we should be looking at knocking these bloody things down."

Specialist consultancy company Calford Seaden has been appointed to commission and supervise the works, which are expected to start in October.

Cllr Neil Baker, the chairman of the community committee, quashed Cllr Clark's suggestion, saying: "As a council, I think we’re doing the best we can and we have reassured residents.

"We don't have many of these high rises in the area and a lot of our residents actually cherish living in them.

"Our fire and rescue service, because there are so few of them, knows inside out what to do if there was to be a problem because it's not as though we have hundreds of them and all are different."

Despite current regulations not requiring it, Windsor House in Belmont Road, which stands 12 storeys high, will have sprinklers installed because of its height and the vulnerability of its residents.

A redesign of the block's ground floor will also take place.

Improvements will be made to some of the balconies at Elizabeth Court in Queen Street and to the escape routes and smoke ventilation system in Margaret Court in King's Road.

Planning permission will be applied for where needed and all of the work will be subject to approval by experts in building control.

The report also found "there is a need to quickly progress" plans to mitigate the fire safety risk in "most sheltered housing units and the homeless hostels in Herne Bay".