AS the chairman of the Wiltshire & Swindon Combined Fire Authority, I sympathised with Journal reader Richard Cousens and his complaint (Journal Postbag, September 11) about the intrusive and apparently irrelevant personal questions attached to the Wiltshire & Swindon Fire & Rescue Service public consultation document.

As the person responsible for approving the release of the questionnaire, I along with my CFA colleagues, was horrified at the extra questions which we all thought should be removed as unnecessary and far too intrusive.

However, our officers and the company running this exercise on our behalf, assured us that as a tax-payer funded public service organisation, we had to comply with current legislation and include all the extra questions, so instead of the two questions on a single sheet of paper we ended up with the large questionnaire which so concerned Mr Cousens.

Apparently the additional questions are there to ensure that all sections of our multicultural society are catered for in the two original questions.

I can reassure all your readers that I have already asked our officers to ensure that all the received questionnaires are destroyed as soon as the relevant data has been extracted and I will double-check to ensure this has been carried out.

Cllr Chris Devine

Farley and Winterslow Division