Around a third of schools in Tower Hamlets have been closed today on a day of protest action with an anti-NHS cuts march to be held this evening.

Members of the National Union of Teachers and council workers in Unison have taken strike action throughout the day to protest council funding cuts.

The council said it had been able to keep “over two-thirds of primary and secondary schools open”.

Their press office would not go into details on individual schools that were opened or closed.

Some schools such as George Green’s on the Isle of Dogs were open with a limited service to pupils with years seven to ten told to stay at home due to insufficient staffing cover.

Around 1500 strikers and supporters held a demonstration this morning in Weavers Fields and also marched to the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel Road.

There a rally was held and the crowd heard from speakers including Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union and Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison.

The council is overseeing �72 million worth of cuts in the next three years.

A statement said: “We have worked hard to protect key services and have sought to minimise the impact on staff.

“Unlike other boroughs no library, children’s centre or school service is being closed.

“We have managed to do this by deleting 500 posts many of which are in management.”

Ten members of the borough’s Support for Learning service, which has behavioural and hearing impairment teams amongst others, are to be made redundant tomorrow.

There will be an anti-NHS cuts march this evening from 5pm, starting outside the Royal London Hospital organised by the Save our NHS group, Unite and Unison.

Protesters are due to march into the City.

One member said the group would be marching to Deutsche Bank to demand an apology after an employee allegedly waved money at protesters on a previous march.