DEFIANT maisonette tenants have refused to comply with council demands that they remove all furnishings from their communal hallways.

Epping Forest District Council issued a sternly written letter warning residents in Torrington Drive, Loughton, to remove carpets, doormats and other home comforts from their halls to comply with new fire regulations.

But with the 14-day deadline now comfortably passed many residents have simply refused to throw out their cherished furnishings putting the ball back in the council's court.

Torrington Drive resident Rita Lewis, 67, said: “There were a lot of elderly people who as soon as the council came along rolled up all their little carpets. They were frightened, but we're going to fight this.

“As time goes by I don't know what they'll do although they could spring it on us. I don't know, but I'm not moving my carpet. I've paid a lot of money for it.

“I'd say a quarter of people have moved their stuff and three quarters haven't.”

Stanley Seach, 86, said: “I think it's a liberty. For years everyone had a doormat and all of a sudden over a bit of a fire everyone's got to take it out. I've never heard anything so daft. To make it look decent you must have a carpet.

“How are they going to enforce it anyway? They've given me me a warning about the garden overgrowing. I can understand that so I've cleared my garden but no-one's been round to check it. You look next door and it looks like Epping Forest. What's the point?”

The new regulations were drawn up by the council following a fire earlier this year at a block of flats in Southwark, south London, which claimed six lives.

Mrs Lewis said: “It's all about a fire in London in a block 25 flights high. These are not much bigger than a house from the outside. I think they've gone from on extreme to another.”

Doreen Havard, 73, said: “I've moved a couple of mats at the bottom but I've left the carpet. My husband put the carpet right through. It's ridiculous to move it.”

A council comment on the situation is expected later today.