City Hall is starting “legal activity” after hundreds of its fire doors were discovered not to be adequate in the event of a blaze. 

Norwich City Council is having to replace 454 doors in its tower block flats, including some that were installed due to safety fears after the Grenfell Tower tragedy. 

The city council recently announced the new doors were needed because they “may not perform as required in the event of a fire".

Now the council is beginning legal action against an unnamed person or group due to their state.

Asked who the case would be against and what stage the legal proceedings were at a spokeswoman for the council said they would not be able to comment.

The activity was accidentally let slip by a council official at a meeting of the authority's cabinet on Wednesday.

He said: “We’ve got some separate legal activity taking place to try and navigate through the historic installations to see what has occurred, primarily to ensure it doesn’t happen again but also to ensure that we are not out of pocket on those.” 

Some of the doors are being replaced just over two years after they were installed in 2020.

The official added the council is conducting testing on new doors and doorsteps, and they would be working to get those into homes.

The Labour-led authority previously said it has put additional safety measures in place, written to everyone affected and is working with the fire service to ensure people are protected. 

Protection measures include new heat alarms in the flats to alert people more quickly in the event of a fire.

The issue is the latest in a long-running safety scandal at Norwich City Council, which saw hundreds of crucial safety inspections of fire, water and electrics not done. 

Following the discovery last year, the authority has accelerated a programme of repairs and inspections at its properties. 

The cost to replace the fire doors in tower blocks has not been revealed.