Police and security guards are on standby at a Norfolk County Council budget meeting after two people were arrested for breaching the peace this morning.

Around a dozen protesters, who were shouting from the public gallery, were thrown out of the full council meeting this morning at which controversial plans to cut �60m and up to 1,000 jobs will be discussed.

Chairman Tony Tomkinson adjourned the meeting five minutes after it started following calls from protesters.

Shouts of 'You have no mandate to do this' and 'You are a disgrace' rang out across the council chamber as security guards and police moved the protesters.

Tom Harriman, 19, of Earlham Road, was one protester to be escorted out of the meeting.

He said: 'I came here today to make certain the Tories know how we feel. They cannot think they can rush it through.'

'They were saying were couldn't ask questions. We were not just going to sit there and watch it happen.'

He said that his father had worked all his life and he could now no longer work and relied on benefits.

George Deacon, 49, a self-employed Norwich tour guide and City College student, was escorted out o the meeting and was told he must leave the County Hall area.

He said he had challenged Mr Murphy over his right to ask a question during the meeting as it believed it did not say anywhere that he couldn't.

He said that the council were using the cuts as an excuse for privatisation.

'We've got a message for them. It's not going to happen. We will stop it. Look at Egypt. We can use people power.'

A council spokesman said there was no mechanism for public questions at full council, but of course there were opportunities during the scrutiny and cabinet process to ask questions and to make points known.