Union leaders are threatening strike action if council jobs are lost and services cut.

With Surrey County Council looking to make savings of £180m over four years, council chiefs have said some redundancies are inevitable and non-frontline services may be hit.

But Paul Couchman, branch secretary of trade union Surrey County Unison, has warned that unless agreement can be reached industrial action may follow. He said: "We are appealing to all public service trade unions to join us in a war against these cuts.

"We have an ongoing consulting ballot taking place at the moment and are vehemently opposed to these plans."

He added that if his members were unhappy with the council's continuing position, a legal ballot would be called to see if industrial action was supported, saying the union would rather see a small hike in council tax than job losses and cuts.

David Hodge, deputy leader of Surrey County Council, admits belt-tightening is on the way, and cost cutting and council tax rises are inevitable.

He said: "As far as possible we will try to see if natural wastage can account for some of those jobs, not replacing retiring staff, for example."

Mr Hodge refused to be drawn too much into discussing which areas are most at risk, but did not disagree with the replies given by council officers to the Freedom of Information Act request, originally submitted by the BBC, which singled out residential care and bus support as being vulnerable.

He said: "We subsidise some bus routes by around £20 per person for a return journey. We pay more than any other county.

"As for residential care, it can be quite costly, one care home in the region charges £980 a week. Better to see if people can be cared for at home with our support."

Other measures revealed by the council's response include a staff pay freeze, and building sharing.