However, frustrated members of the FBU have accused Mr Hunter of deflecting the issue by focusing on a few letters instead of the majority.

The campaign to save 24-hour cover at Balmossie Fire Station has seen the largest response to any consultation in the history of the fire service in Scotland, according to Tayside FBU secretary Jim Malone.

More than 1300 signatures have been collected during the six-month campaign in a bid to stop proposals to alter the fire service at Balmossie Fire Station.

Fire service management have proposed using retained firefighters as night cover at Balmossie — which serves Broughty Ferry, Barnhill and Monifieth — while introducing a new appliance in Perth and a new tender in Forfar.

They have argued this move will deliver more effective community safety and emergency response services across Tayside, but firefighters have claimed it would be too risky and put lives in danger.

Concerned firefighters have taken part in several campaign events asking members of the public to sign letters of protest and forwarding them to Tayside Fire and Rescue Board.

However, Mr Hunter has now claimed that some of the responses sent by the FBU are not genuine, as the people named on them did not provide the names, addresses and signatures included in the letters.

He said, “We have to respond to every receipt of correspondence as part of the Towards a Safer Tayside consultation process. We have had four people come back to say they never signed any letter.

“One of the individuals, who actually works within our organisation, came up to the officer sending out acknowledgements to say he hadn’t signed anything. The letter we apparently received from him had his printed name, address and signature but he said it was not his signature.”

Mr Hunter also said another lady had got in touch to say she had signed a previous petition but had no role in the consultation process.

He said the revelations caused doubts about the validity of the rest of the responses.

“I suppose you could question how many other letters have been falsified and have been submitted,” he said.

“I am well aware that there has been a large response from people and many people were made completely aware of what they were signing, but we are also aware that the letter has been produced by the FBU as part of their campaign. They are not letters that people have crafted themselves in response but part of the FBU’s campaign, which the fire board is aware of and will consider that very fact.”

However a spokesman from the FBU said that copies taken at the time can verify the 1300 letters collected in the consultation period.

He said, “As far as I’m concerned everything involved in the campaign was done upfront. We have photographed or photocopied every single letter that has been sent back to the fire board. If somebody has said they didn’t send some in, we are very disappointed about that.

“However, four out of 1300 people doesn’t seem that much. Surely the chief fire officer should be much more interested in looking at the rest of the people who have sent back forms than the four who claim they didn’t.”

Jim Malone added, “Over 1300 responses have been sent and to focus on the four who claim they didn’t, seems like Mr Hunter is trying to deflect the issue. Consultation on Towards a Safer Tayside closes on February 28, with a decision to be made by the full Tayside Joint Fire and Rescue Board on March 30.