Thousands of public service workers went on strike yesterday in protest against job cuts.

Across Sussex staff from immigration and passport services, the courts, coastguard, DVLA, Job Centres, the Child Support Agency and other government offices joined picket lines and staged rallies and marches for the May Day strike.

Haywards Heath County Court was forced to close along with the DVLA driving test centre in Hastings, while dozens of offices had to run with a skeleton staff.

There were disruptions at Gatwick, where immigration and passport services staff joined the protest.

More than 600 of the 700 Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members in Brighton and Hove took part in the action and thousands more across Sussex joined in. The union said up to 200,000 workers were taking part in the strike nationally.

The union wants to halt government moves to cut 100,000 jobs and is opposed to moves towards more private-sector involvement.

Dozens of members joined a rally and march starting from the Brighthelm Community Centre in North Road, Brighton.

Union spokeswoman Gerry Hyde said: "So far we have lost 60,000 civil servants and they're still cutting.

"It looks like they want to go well over 100,000. Yesterday our local pension service workers were all notified of an exit package being made available to them."

Among the jobs under threat in Sussex are a significant number at Job Centres as well as at the Child Support Agency offices in Hastings and in Revenue and Customs.

Few civil service departments are considered safe.

The strike has been accompanied by an overtime ban for union members. It is the latest in a series of attempts by the union to call attention to the issue.

Mrs Hyde said yesterday's action had been the best supported so far, attracting more members than the previous strike in January.

She said: "It is all gearing up now. We are showing just how determined we are."

Dozens of union members attended a rally in Havelock Road, Hastings.

Nigel Sheehan, from the town's PCS branch, said: "Clearly people are very upset about what's going on.

"It is outrageous that they want to cut resources for us when we are working in a system that is failing."