“We feel abandoned.”

“We are on our own”.

“We have had nothing from the government.”

These are just some of the words of David Fothergill, leader of Somerset County Council, as he presided over £15million worth of cuts to public services on Wednesday.

Around 80 protestors had gathered for a packed meeting in Shire Hall in Taunton, hoping that some of the cuts could be delayed, amended or scrapped altogether.

But aside from  one concession – delaying a decision on young carers until February 2019 – a heavy-hearted Mr Fothergill and his cabinet passed the proposals as they originally appeared.

Such was the grim mood within the chamber that he called a five-minute recess in a bid to stop protestors from clapping after each public question – a move that swiftly backfired when councillor Adam Dance led others in clapping throughout much of the break.

With the clock now ticking, the council will have to bring forward these agreed savings at the rate of £2.5million a month between now and setting its budget for the next financial year.

Speaking to protestors and listening to questions from the public, we were given a glimpse of how the impact would be felt on the ground.

Here are five of the possible impacts which the council’s cuts could have:

1. The vulnerable will be hit hard Steve Preddy, Unite’s acting regional secretary for the south west, travelled down from Bristol to be at the protest.

He said: “The savagery of these cuts is clearly striking home across the entire county.

“These cuts will undoubtedly affect the most vulnerable in our society – the young children, and young people’s services – and that’s totally unacceptable.

“Here we have a quango of eight people making decisions affecting tens of thousands of people – it’s absolutely outrageous.

“If they have any countenance at all for the rule of democracy in this county, they have to give way to public opinion and make sure that we get a full council debate on these issues.”

The protests were marked by recurring chants of “Don’t let the eight decide our fate” – referring to the cabinet – and a small number of councillors were booed by the crowd as they arrived for the meeting.

Opposition councillors led by Bridgwater member Leigh Redman requested an emergency full council meeting after the cabinet’s decision. The council has yet to confirm whether this will go ahead.

Mr Preddy added: “We will do everything necessary, and within the parameters of the law, to support our members whose jobs are at risk – but most importantly, those people whose services are at risk as a result of these cuts.”

2. Children’s well-being could be affected  Evelyn Ashford works for Educational Equality, an organisation which supports families with children who have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

She works with families who are fighting tribunals against the council to get the care and support their children need – and fears that the cuts will put more children at risk.

She said: “For our families, it’s causing enormous problems – children aren’t being supported. That can mean everything from them not passing exams to suicide watch.

“We’ve got a big increase in mental health cases because they’re cutting back on NHS staff and teaching staff, and staff working with young people with autism, who are very bad with environmental changes.”

Numerous members of the public spoke during the public session about their ongoing struggles to secure the right support for their children, including education, health and care plans (ECHPs).

Sarah Baker shared one story about a child who asked his mother to take him back to the hospital where he was born and “put him to sleep” because he “couldn’t cope”.

Councillor Frances Nicholson, the cabinet member for children and families, offered to meet with the individuals affected and apologised for their distress.

She said: “We want every child and young person to have the greatest opportunity to be the best that they can be.

“All children with ECHPs are assessed to identify their needs and the support required to meet those needs.

“We have statutory duties, and we are not proposing to reduce children’s services to the statutory minimum. We will do what we can.”

3. Lives could be lost Mayor of Bridgwater Diogo Rodrigues described the cuts as “diabolical” and warned that lives could be lost as a result of the latest round of savings.

He said that there was limited scope for parish or town councils – including those in and around Bridgwater – to step into the breach and safeguard services which the county council was cutting.

He said: “The thing is, county have always said: ‘the smaller councils can do it, they can do the work’. But we can’t always do the work, because then we’ve got to increase our taxes.

“Bridgwater Town Council does a lot with what we’ve got. We stepped in to save the Rollercoaster [youth club] from closing down because of the county cuts.

“They need to stop passing the buck, they need to stand up and do the thing that’s right by the people.”

The Rollercoaster Youth Club, based in the Sydenham area of Bridgwater, was given a ‘safe and welcoming award’ by the county council in August 2017, recognising its appeal to young people.

Mr Rodrigues added: “They need to turn around and go back to central government.

“Lives could be potentially lost – that’s how serious this is. It’s horrid.”

4. Road users could be “at risk”

Melissa Whittaker-Mather came to the protest to represent the views of people across the Chard and Ilminster area.

She said: “We’re concerned about a whole range of issues, including the removal of the gritting. That will cause safety concerns for people driving – whether you’re a pedestrian, a driver or on public transport, it seems like a risk.

“I’m not confident that the council will make any changes, because in general when they make their mind up, they do what they want.”

As part of the changes agreed, the council will not grit any road which is 500 feet or more above sea level – a decision which will hit isolated rural communities on Exmoor, the Mendip Hills, the Quantock Hills and the Blackdown Hills on the Devon border.

Councillor John Woodman, cabinet member for highways, said that the council would work with local parish councils to advise them on obtaining salt commercially, so that they can carry out the work themselves.

Councillor Simon Coles, however, said that the success of this proposal depended greatly on Somerset having another mild weather – rather than a repeat of the Beast from the East which hit the county in March.

He said: “If you abandon communities above the 500ft suggestion, that comes as a cost.

“A single fatality has a cost to the public purse of £1.7M. I don’t want to be part of a council that abandons people. We are gambling with people’s lives.”

5. The council could still run out of money Councillor Neil Bloomfield, who represents Martock, defected from the ruling Conservative group to the Liberal Democrats in light of the official auditor’s report earlier in the year.

Standing outside Shire Hall, he said that the cabinet meeting was “a rubber stamp exercise” – and warned that the council could still go bankrupt.

He said: “My concern is that no matter what happens, the county will still run out of money and will not balance its budget.

“The county is now being run as a business – a cold, hard business – and whatever they can cut back and stay within the law, they are going to cut.

“This council has failed to generate any [commercial] income for itself. It froze the council tax for years on end – it has no money. It has painted itself into a corner, and it’s got nowhere left to go.”

Mr Fothergill seemed to partially reflect these concerns when he stressed that not passing the cuts would leave Somerset residents even worse off.

He said: “If you think Northamptonshire has been resolved, it has not – they have serious problems there.

“If we don’t do this by March, this council will fail, and the consequences of failing will be horrendous.”

Northamptonshire County Council has issued two section 114 notices – effectively an admission of bankruptcy – in the space of a year, leading to a direct intervention by central government to reduce services down to the legal minimum.

The council’s audit committee will meet in Taunton on Thursday morning (September 20) to discuss the authority’s financial predicament in further detail.