A fire authority chairman and chief fire officer have "strenuously" denied being the authors of "racist" emails leaked to a union.

The exchanges were allegedly sent between Wiltshire Chief Fire Officer Andrew Goves and the authority chairman Jerry Willmott CBE.

The Fire Brigades Union called for an inquiry into "highly-offensive racist comments" made in the correspondence.

The brigade said a full investigation would be launched immediately.

In a statement, Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority said Mr Goves and Mr Willmott "strenuously" denied writing two emails, leaked to the FBU union, relating to investigations into disciplinary issues at Marlborough Fire Station.

The authority did not make any further comment about another email, which was purportedly written by Mr Willmott about attending a dinner in October 2005.

It said: "I see the rig is evening dress, are we going back to mess dress and medals? (I would have thought that with this mob in charge of the country we would have been required to wear dreadlocks and multi-coloured woolly hats or nightshirts and tea-towels".

An email, apparently sent in January 2006 and which Mr Willmott denies writing, is about Marlborough Fire Station.

It is purported to relate to the alleged bullying of the only black firefighter there.

Addressed to the fire chief Andy Goves, it said: "Andy what is going on? They are a good bunch at Marlborough and from what I hear the darkie is nothing but trouble. It is for you to decide how to handle it, you are the governor. Cheers Jerry Willmott."

The fire chief is alleged to have responded: "..we have a potential problem. I have stressed the need to look at the bigger picture and not get too carried away. Don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot here!!"

Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority said it was taking legal advice about what it regarded as the potentially actionable nature of what it said were unfounded allegations.

In a statement it said: "There will be an immediate, independent and forensic investigation into the circumstances surrounding the correspondence."

It said it had "a demonstrable - and independently audited - record of implementing diversity and equal opportunity policies".

The statement added the authority also had a record of investigating any breaches of these policies and fire service regulations "thoroughly, firmly, promptly and transparently".

Jerry Willmott CBE is a Conservative councillor for Kennet District Council.

A spokeswoman for the Conservative Party said it did not tolerate any form of racism.

"Now that this has been brought to our attention, we are looking into it. We will investigate this allegation," she said.