COUNCIL services face massive disruption on Wednesday as town hall staff go on strike over cuts in their pension entitlement.

Everything from refuse collection, schools and offices, social services and leisure centres will be hit during the one-day action.

Members of trade union Unison voted by around 75 per cent for a strike, which is taking place nationally, in protest at the Government's decision to increase the public sector retirement age from 60 to 65.

Town hall bosses say they will keep emergency services going, but say there will be a very limited service at most buildings. People whose rubbish is collected on Wednesday (parts of Ainsworth, Radcliffe and Unsworth) will have it collected the following week.

Mr Steve Morton, branch secretary of Bury Unison, said: "The time has come to say enough is enough'. This attack on pensions is a step too far. Our members have voted overwhelmingly: in fact, we've had a huge upturn in recruitment. They feel they need to demonstrate and show their opposition to this."

Mr Mark Sanders, the council's chief executive, said there was a lot of sympathy for the workforce.

"We are extremely disappointed that the Government made this significant change to the pension scheme without consultation with us as an employer," he said. "We feel it will affect our ability to recruit and retain staff. They have also announced a quite outrageous set of proposals for far more draconian changes in 2008, which to put it mildly, is tactless."

Mr Sanders said he was not happy that Unison had not given exemptions to staff working with vulnerable people, for instance in old folks' homes. A trade union convener for 15 years, he said: "If the union had given exemptions to those people, I would have withdrawn my labour on Wednesday too."

But Mr Morton said: "We made an offer to cover emergency services if they would agree to close the administrative buildings. They have not responded, so they are putting admin buildings in front of vulnerable people. We believe there are enough non-union staff on the ground who won't be going on strike to cover that."