Argyll and Bute Council faces a £6 million budget gap in the next financial year.
The authority’s policy and resources committee will meet on Thursday, when budget planning will be on the agenda.
Councillors will consider reports that set out the scale of the financial challenge, and work being done to prepare for the council setting its budget in February.
Councillor Gary Mulvaney, policy lead for financial services, said: “As a large rural and island area, it is costlier for us than many other councils to provide services across the area.
“We also provide a wider range of services than other councils, such as ferries.
“At the same time we want to attract people here and create jobs so we invest in non-statutory services like economic development.
Savings can only come from a relatively small proportion of the authority’s budget, 32%, because of national priorities and other factors outside council control.
Argyll councillors poised for crunch talks on ‘huge challenge’ of £6m budget deficit
