Concrete canopies above council houses across Colchester are to be replaced after the Gazette exposed a potentially dangerous fault in the design.

A canopy above the front door at a former council property in King George Road, Colchester, crashed down in the early hours of the morning last year.

The residents, Geoffrey and Jean Saunders, feared they could have been seriously injured or killed if they had been at their front door when it collapsed at their home, which dates from the early 1950s.

The incident, in June, and highlighted in the Gazette, sparked an extensive inspection of canopies across the borough by Colchester Borough Homes, and a large number of the canopies were removed.

Colchester Borough Homes has removed 39 canopies classed as high risk, and they are being replaced, including 17 at flats, where a replacement canopy requires planning permission.

About 100 canopies were classed as being at a lower risk, and will be replaced in the following financial year, and about 50 at low risk will be replaced in the third year.

Daniel Allen, partnership director at Colchester Borough Homes, said: "The health and safety of our tenants is paramount."

Colchester Borough Homes is also carrying out the work on behalf of homeowners who have bought council properties. No single cause for the failure of the canopies was identified.