Hundreds of protesters gathered in Cardiff City Centre today to demonstrate against the spending cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week.

Just three days after Mr Osborne announced cuts in his Comprehensive Spending Review, which will see capital spending allowance for Wales drop by £1.8bn over the next four years, around 300 members from the trade unions in Cardiff and members the public protested outside Cardiff City Hall.

Katrine Williams, chair of the PCS union in Wales and one of the main organisers of the protest, told the BBC poorer people were most vulnerable to the cuts, as well as public sector workers.

She said: “There are more people on benefits in Merthyr Tydfil than there are jobs in the whole of Wales.”

Protesters waved placards and banners as they walked from Cardiff City Hall along Castle Street towards Bute Park. They shouted out slogans calling for the banks to pay to protect public services, saying that the poor had been affected the most by the cuts.

Representatives from the main trade unions in Cardiff the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), The Teachers Trade Union (NASUWT), The General Trade Union (GMB), the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the Newport Passport Office and others spoke at a rally in Bute Park after the procession.

Many protesters called for the Welsh Assembly to reject the cuts.

But Neil McEvoy, Deputy leader of Cardiff Council, said rejecting the cuts would mean the the Council would face a surcharge from the government.

At the end of the protest, Ms Williams said: “I am pleased with today’s protest.” She said the demonstration helped raise awareness of the spending cuts and that people would gradually begin to take part.

The next major protest has been announced by the TUC. It said a national demonstration will be held on 26 March next year in London’s Hyde Park.