Two schools - Coleby primary school and Lafford High School in Billinghay - were forced to close because of striking support staff in the 48-hour industrial action, while across the county a total of 25 schools were closed, four more partially closed as well as five libraries, crematoria and some museum and heritage attractions.

Libraries including the mobile library service were unaffected in the Sleaford area.

Public sector unions Unison and Unite have called the strike complaining of ten years of below inflation pay rises.

Inflation increased from 4.3 per cent to 4.8 per cent according to the retail price index and the latest pay offer for most council staff is a rise of 2.45 per cent – equating to what the unions say is a pay cut.

Unions are seeking a 50 pence per hour (six per cent) rise for the lowest paid, who currently earn £6 per hour.

North Kesteven District Council claimed it was pretty much business as usual.

Alan Thomas, NKDC Deputy Chief Executive said out of 430 staff, 77 people decided to go on strike on Wednesday and 88 on Thursday.

Mr Thomas added: "North Kesteven District Council services have operated as normal throughout the strike, which has hopefully caused no disruption to residents."

Info-Links offices at Metheringham and North Hykeham were closed on both days, but all other community access points were open.

Out of 17,500 county council employees, 522 staff are reported by the council to have taken industrial action on Wednesday, dropping to 478 on Thursday.

Janet Marshall of Lincolnshire County Council said the public will mostly not have noticed a difference to services as things like care homes had been unaffected.

But Richard Parker, regional organiser for Unison, was based at North Kesteven District Council while staff picketed entrances. He claimed there had been around 200 members answering the call to strike over the two days and was pleased with the turn out: "Our message to local government employers is that 2.45 per cent is not good enough and will not pay for the fuel prices being experienced in North Kesteven at the moment. Our members are reluctant to take action but are left with no option when faced with below inflation pay rises," he said

Unison's county branch secretary John Sharman felt they had a lot of public support. They just wanted a fair deal. "We are not the causes of inflation, we are the victims," he said. He accepted Lincolnshire was a notoriously low paid county in the agricultural and hotel sector, but that was because those areas generally had a low union presence to stand up for workers.

A union rally took place in Lincoln on Wednesday calling for bosses to come back to the negotiating table and use council reserves and efficiency savings to up pay.

But Jan Parkinson, Managing Director of the Local Government Employers, said: "The only thing the unions have achieved through striking is to lose their members two days pay. Our last offer, which is affordable to the council taxpayer and fair to staff, remains our final offer. The money contained in the offer is also backdated to April and will help council workers deal with the rising cost of living.

"We remain willing to talk to the unions about the future employment terms of our workforce, but there is no more money in the pot for this year's pay settlement. Any increase in our final offer could lead to council tax rises, job losses or service cuts. Employers, unions and local people do not want to see any of this happen. Unison and Unite should now accept the offer on the table so council workers can receive their pay increase."