No one would have believed in the early years of the twenty first century that this county was being watched keenly and jealously by eyes greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, writes Bridgwater Town Council leader, Brian Smedley.

Yes, Throbworth and Twott, Chartered Accountants of Basingstoke who had been brought in as Commissioners by the Government to run the now bankrupt Somerset County Council.

Dear reader, as you read this I will be in a life-or-death meeting of the new, unwanted and totally pointless Somerset unitary taking the final vote on whether to balance a budget and make cuts that the councillors don’t want to do, or to vote against and try to make someone see sense.

We can balance the budget and give ourselves maybe six months of grace before the budget actually does collapse, or maybe there will be a general election and a new government will come to rescue and finally restore proper funding for local councils so we can keep the services we need.

But little did we know that as councillors busied themselves about their various concerns they were being scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drainage ditch somewhere near Chedzoy.

With infinite complacency, no one gave a thought to the dark suited men about to earn £1,200 a day as commissioners to take control of that very council.  

Yet across the gulf of space, well, Wiltshire, early in 2024 came the great disillusionment.