A WALKOUT held today at a closure-threatened Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency offices in Exeter will kickstart a month of rolling strikes among the public and commercial Services union's 8,000 Department for Transport members.

The two-hour strike will involve around 1,200 staff in the DVLA's 39 local and enforcement offices that the government plans to close.

Objectors claim that as well as putting jobs at risk, the DVLA closures could wipe out the high quality face-to-face services these offices provide to the public and motor traders, whose often complex enquiries could not be handled by telephone or online.

Further strikes will be held throughout June by staff in the DfT's headquarters and its seven agencies, including the Driving Standards Agency and Highways Agency.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "With unemployment high and our communities suffering as a result of the government's cuts, ministers should be providing all the help they can to local economies that are crying out for support and investment.

"Instead they're ploughing on with entirely unnecessary and unpopular cuts to vital transport services. These strikes across the whole range of transport services form a major part of our ongoing fight against cuts to pensions, jobs and pay."