CIVIL servants staged another day of strike protest in Worcestershire.

About 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, including 500 in Worcester, joined the day of protest today.

The union, which represents 270,000 civil servants in the county, was striking over pay, jobs and privatisation.

More than 30 people attended a special meeting - hustings - of union representatives and leaders of Worcestershire political parties at the Whitehouse Hotel, Foregate Street.

Bruce Thomas, the union's branch secretary for DEFRA and Animal Health in Worcestershire, said the action had caused disruption at the magistrates, crown court and DEFRA.

Mr Thomas said: "It has been an excellent day. It was our first time having a hustings and it has been a useful exercise in which we had group leaders from the council attend, and union members were able to grill them about public service issues for over an hour.

"The strike is in protest at Government plans to cut over 100,000 jobs, make compulsory redundancies and below-inflation pay offers."

The union's assistant secretary Richard Cork said people tended to think the announcement of thousands of jobs going in the civil service was just going to affect Whitehall, London.

However he said it would have a major impact to services provided in the area along with a huge amount of jobs.