HUNDREDS of campaigners are set to take to the streets today [Sat] ahead of the expected announcement of multi-million pound council cuts and job losses next month.

Trade unions, community campaigners and political groups are all expected to participate in major anti-cut protests in Brighton and Eastbourne.

Motorists have been warned to expect some traffic delays as campaigners signal their intent ahead of crunch council budget meetings in February.

Protesters will meet at The Level in Brighton from midday before marching to Brighton Town Hall where they will hold a demonstration against a perceived lack of resistance to Government imposed cuts from the city council’s Labour administration.

A separate protest will be held between 11am and 1pm at Bankers Corner in Eastbourne’s Terminus Road against £90 million of proposed savings at East Sussex County Council.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said there were no planned road closures but police officers will be marshalling its progress along the road.

Loved-up couples booked in for weddings at Brighton Town Hall in the afternoon have been contacted by the council’s registrars team about the potential disturbance.

Phil Clarke, general secretary of the Brighton, Hove and District Trades Union Council, said attendee numbers were difficult to predict but he was expecting hundreds with previous similar protests attracting four-figure crowds.

He said: “The timing of the protest is to coincide with the budgets being drawn up across the county.

“The Conservative Government is absolutely dedicated to cut local government funding to shrink the state and privatise public services and this is our campaign to get our money back.”

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said the council’s Labour administration had failed to give a “moral view” over resisting cuts and had ignored union suggestions of ways to minimise reductions or closures of services and job losses.

He said: “Unfortunately the political wilderness could be beckoning for Labour within the city, if they can’t convince voters with a stronger message of opposition to these disastrous cuts other than along the lines of ‘Its Tory cuts and there’s nothing we can do’.”

Council leader Warren Morgan said with more than £140 million taken from the council’s budget by 2020, the authority could not afford to pay for existing level of service but his administration was working hard to minimise redundancies, delivering services differently and raising income.

He added: “It is the job of unions to represent their members, but they need to join with me in taking the fight to Government, not the town hall.

“I have and will continue to make the case to Government ministers for the funding our services need.”