I HAVE resided within Bournemouth and Poole for many years with numerous private lettings. I quickly discovered that each time I filled out a lawfully-required electoral roll form, I soon became bombarded by junk mailers who appeared to know all about me, including my telephone numbers.

Yet today I was informed that my bus pass was out of date. They should have sent me a new one. On enquiring I was told that I did not receive it as I had moved and not informed the local council office. Subsequently I had to pay a kind of ‘eight pound fine’ to have it renewed.

This baffled me. I said: “But surely my electoral roll gave up-to-date information, plus I have long taken up a new home within a council-run sheltered home – surely all that council-run data should have been known to you?”

I was informed that all that information was subject to ‘Data-privacy’ in which council bodies cannot rely on. So it seems to me that the ‘Data Protection Act’ is not available to me in circumstances that could aid me via my council, but it is surely there for all and sundry who want to constantly commercially poach and pester me via post, email or telephone.

What kind of ‘Protection Act’ is that when all the protected information is liberally going out to the wrong people?

CHRISTINE PETERS, Wellington Road, Bournemouth