* Public service workers protest against planned wage freeze
* Polish economy growing well but budget gap worrisome
WARSAW, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Around 5,000 public service workers, including policemen and firemen, protested in central Warsaw on Wednesday against plans to freeze their salaries next year as part of a government drive to tame state spending.
Waving banners of the Solidarity trade union and white and red Polish national flags, the protesters marched to parliament where they handed in a petition demanding a repeal of austerity measures planned in the 2011 draft budget.
"The government's idea of freezing wages is ridiculous. Who will do the work of the police, the fire service or the public administration? In two or three years they will have all moved to work in the private sector instead," said Robert Osmycki, head of the firefighters' section of the Solidarity union.
"Who then will provide security for the state and for society?" he said.
"I am afraid a lot of civil servants will lose their jobs," said Stefan Bagan, from the tax collectors' federation.
A red open-top double-decker London bus carrying a brass band of coal miners lent a festive note to the protest.
The protest is part of a wider wave of discontent sweeping Europe, where unions are staging rallies against austerity measures that analysts say are unlikely to deter cash-strapped governments.
Poland has weathered the global financial crisis better than its neighbours: it was the only member of the 27-nation European Union to avoid recession last year.
Revised official data published on Wednesday showed the economy managed to expand by 1.7 percent in 2009 and growth is expected to exceed 3 percent this year.
However, the crisis battered tax revenues and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centre-right government is now struggling to close a budget deficit likely to top 7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year.
Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski acknowledged on Wednesday the deficit would exceed 100 billion zlotys ($33.74 billion) this year, much higher than previously thought.
With a parliamentary election due next autumn, Tusk has ruled out "radical" reforms but his government has proposed a 1 percentage point hike in value-added tax and a cap on spending, including public service salaries, to help rein in the deficit. (Reporting by Ola Zielinska, writing by Gareth Jones, editing by Mark Trevelyan)