Services across the Bradford district are expected to be cancelled tomorrow as tens of thousands of public sector workers walk out in protest over planned changes to their pensions.

Youth centres, public buildings, libraries, swimming pools, adult day care centres and waste recycling centres are expected to close and bin collections stop as members of a number of trade unions take part in the biggest co-ordinated strike in decades.

Of the 190 schools in the district, 156 had tonight confirmed they would be closed, 21 had said they would be partially open and just 13 had confirmed they would be fully open.

Bradford Council said it was aiming to minimise the impact of the strike on the most vulnerable and had worked to ensure essential staff would be exempt from strike action.

Chief executive Tony Reeves said: “We have reached agreement with the trade unions to exempt some essential front-line staff from strike action to minimise the impact of the industrial action on the most vulnerable people.

“This is a national issue and we will do everything we can to maintain essential services and keep residents informed.”

Mark Fieldhouse, a representative for Unite, which has 600 members in Bradford, confirmed the union had been in talks with the Council to keep essential services running.

He said: “We expect all of our other members to go on strike. We hope it sends a clear message to the Government, they can’t mess with people’s futures. They have paid all their working lives to be able to live to a certain level in retirement.”

A Rally for Pensions’ Justice, organised by the Trades Union Conference, is to be held at 11am tomorrow in Centenary Square, with up to 5,000 union members expected to attend.

John Howarth, branch secretary for Bradford NUT, said thousands of members of the four teaching unions that have voted in favour of the walk-out were due to meet at the Hilton Hotel in Bradford ahead of the rally.

He said: “It’s not a dispute with individual schools, it’s a dispute with the Government about imposing a horrendous pension settlement on us. It’s about the Government acting unreasonably.”

A spokesman for the Public and Commercial Services Union said she expected all of its 2,700 members in Bradford, which include staff from the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Revenue and Customs, Job Centre Plus and the Courts Service, to take part in the industrial action with picket lines due to be set up outside their workplaces.

Members of the University and College Union are due to picket outside Bradford University and Bradford College in Great Horton Road, while police staff members of Unison are also expected to leave their posts for the day.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service tonight confirmed it would run services but urged the public only to call in serious and life-threatening circumstances.

The service was expected to be operating at a reduced level between 6am and 6pm tomorrow.

Executive director of operations Sarah Fatchett said: “We are asking people to only call 999 for an ambulance in an emergency when it is obvious that someone has a life-threatening or serious illness or injury.

“We also ask that anyone requiring advice or treatment for a non-emergency situation or minor ailment considers options such as self-care, a visit to a local pharmacist, GP surgery or walk-in centre.”

e-mail: hannah.baker@telegraphandargus.co.uk