Rob Phillips, chair of the All Wales Forum and a rep at the National Library of Wales section, said members were keen to add their support to the Wales TUC's A Future That Works Campaign bus tour when it visited Aberystwth recently.

The aim of the Wales-wide tour, which took place between June 18-27, was to gather evidence of the true impact of austerity cuts, collect stories, and unite communities and elected representatives to stand up for change.

Rob was one of several reps at the library who hopped on the bus to be filmed talking about the impact on ordinary people across Wales. Each participant was asked to write on a speech bubble what the cuts meant to them.

Rob said many members in the library are feeling the pinch, not only because it is an area with some of the lowest wages in Wales, so changes to benefits such as childcare really do bite deep, but staff at the library had had to endure a pay freeze even before the one imposed on the public sector.

But the example chosen by Rob was "My neighbours depend on a food bank". It was this discovery, he said, that really brought home the misery that the government's austerity plan is causing.

While he had always realised his home town of Lampeter was not one of the most affluent in Wales, with many residents reliant on public sector jobs, it wasn't until he found out that his local church had to set up a food bank that the true impact became clear.

"I was astounded and disgusted. So it was really good to be able to go onto the bus and have it noted down exactly how these cuts are affecting real people in the most serious ways."