A FIRE which was started deliberately in a block of flats in Taunton has sparked a war of words.

One former tenant claimed that the blaze should never have happened while residents have criticised the Deane council for not installing fire doors.

But the Deane is adamant it is working to resolve the situation.

Tina Dale used to live in the block of flats in Newton Road which was set alight shortly before midnight on Monday, July 3, resulting in nine people being rescued.

She claims she moved out of the property two years ago because the Deane council kept promising to install security doors after several fires were started de-liberately in the stairwell, but nothing ev-er happened.

Tina, who now lives in Luxton Road, said: "I moved out of the flat because I was living with my young daughter and didn't feel safe.

"Fires were deliberately started in the stairwell at least a couple of times, but the council never kept its promise to in-stall security doors."

Residents currently living in the building claim the council still will not install security doors.

Les Hazell said: "We want to feel secure in the building, and believe we should have a proper security system and doors, but the council says the damaged ones will be replaced with the same sort.

"That's just not good enough. It's bad enough that they've been slow to help us with the clean-up."

And Michael Leahey added: "It's our main concern at the moment because it could quite easily happen again."

Another resident, John Starr, agreed.

But Cllr Greg Garner, executive councillor for housing services, said the council was working to resolve the situation.

"As always we do everything we can to ensure that the needs of our tenants are met.

"Prompt action was taken on the night of the fire - our on-call housing officer made calls immediately, so tenants had access to accommodation. The residents were able to get back home the next day.

"The clean-up is taking place and the electrics have been checked. We're also reviewing the possible causes, and security within the flats and its general location.

"We'd like to take this opportunity to emphasise that we do all we reasonably can for our tenants."

A man arrested in connection with the incident has been released on bail.