Learner drivers, courts and other services were affected after thousands of civil service workers went out on strike.

At Southend test centre, 20 driving tests were cancelled out of 43 which were booked yesterday - about 20 per cent higher than the national average.

Clerks at Southend courts took to the picket line, as did HM Revenue and Customs workers from Alexander House and Portcullis House, in Victoria Avenue, as part of the 24-hour strike.

About 2,500 members of the Public and Commercial Service Union across south Essex joined in the protest at job cuts, pensions and privatisation.

Workers walked out after the threat of job cuts, including 344 at HM Revenue and Customs in Southend, Basildon and Shoebury, were announced in November.

Kerry Fairless, eastern regional chairman for the union, said: "We are protesting about the closure of local offices - Basildon being one of them - where the plan is to shut the revenue and customs office and move the work into Southend.

"This means if pensioners in Basildon need the services, they have to jump on a bus or train to Southend.

"We are also protesting about the privatisation of services, where you have now got consultants in offices.

"We have sold our computers to Fujitsu and our buildings are being managed by Mapeley."

Workers at HM Revenue and Customs in Southend have been told some jobs will be moved to Yorkshire, but it has not yet been announced which positions are involved.

Fiona Staff, the union's Southend branch secretary, said there had been "overwhelming support" for the strike.

She said: "People are just so fed up and angry at the way they are being treated by the Government.

"They look at their kids and their grandchildren and the way it is going in this town.

"The problems from the staff's point of view is they have been told by management what is happening and that jobs were going in July, but not where, so they are sitting with the sword of Damocles over them."

A spokesman for the Driving Standards Agency said it would be contacting people who had missed out on their driving test to arrange another test at no extra cost.

He added: "They do not have to do anything.

"We will sort everything out for them."