Caravan park and camp site owners are calling on Highland Council to scrap a campervan pass scheme after only a handful of passes were sold.
There have been repeated calls for the initiative to be cancelled since it was launched by the local authority in July.
The voluntary scheme is open to all campervan and motorhome users travelling across the Highlands, and includes inclusive overnight parking in specified carparks throughout the region.
For a fee of £40, users sign up for a seven-day membership which gives them access to scheme benefits that the councils says will support “continued improvements” to services such as public toilets and wastewater infrastructure.
Highland Council said the scheme will fund “sustainable and responsible tourism” – but business owners quickly hit out, criticising the fierce competition they now face with the “low cost or free facilities now on offer.”
‘Handful of campervan scheme passes sold’
MSP for Highlands and Islands, Edward Mountain, says he has been told by council sources that the scheme has only sold 38 passes so far .
We put these figures to the council but a spokeswoman declined to comment.
Despite only a handful of tickets being sold, free parking places across the region – including huge swathes of the NC500 route – remain full to bursting, with some locations with space for four campervans hosting as many as a dozen each night.
Meanwhile nearby official caravan and camping sites have empty spaces, business owners say.
One operator even claimed that wild campers using the free parking areas next to his business “jump the wall” to make use of his shower and toilet facilities.
Highland campervan pass not helping business, say site owners
Lynn and Darren Redfern, of Dornoch Caravan and Camping Park, spoke to The Press and Journal after eight sites from across the north attended a meeting with council officers urging them to pull the plug on the £40 voluntary scheme.
Mrs Redfern said: “Campervans are not meant to go into the spaces until 10pm at night – but people start arriving in the afternoon.
“When the four spaces in Golspie are full then people continue to park there. It is the same picture across the entire region.
“Car parks are filled up very quickly and people just continue to park – because they can.
“There is no one to make sure the people who are staying in the spaces are paying the fee.”
She added: “One business owner has had 50% fewer people staying this year – that is just not right.”
Highland campervan scheme should be scrapped, MSP says
Highlands MSP, Mr Mountain, says the scheme should be cancelled.
He said: ‘This is another scheme introduced by the council without consulting with the local businesses, with whom they now find themselves in competition.
“The final costs of the scheme are unknown, but I have heard figures of up to £2million which seems ridiculous.
“Just before the end of August, the scheme had been in operation for over six weeks, and 38 campervans had legally used the bays.
“I suspect many more had, too, but because there is no enforcement this scheme is never going to work.
“I would suggest the council scrap it immediately, engage with local businesses and realise that the council should not be in commercial competition with ratepayers across the Highlands.”
‘Highland campervan scheme was suggested through public engagement’
A Highland Council spokeswoman declined to comment on the cost of the scheme, and the number of passes that have been sold.
She said it was a matter for members, and a report would appear before the council.
She continued: “Earlier this year, the public, partners, and the Highland Council’s staff were invited to take part in a survey and share suggestions ahead of the council’s budget for 2024/25.
“Emerging themes from the public engagement highlighted that people understood the need to raise income generation, with the most common suggestion to do so through campervans and motorhomes.
“A proposal to introduce a charging scheme for campervans and motorhomes was approved by members of the Highland Council at its budget meeting on Thursday 29 February 2024.
“Any reports on the outcomes of the scheme will be reported to members of the council in due course.”
She added that the costs of implementing the scheme have been kept to a minimum by adopting existing technologies used by the council.
“The council recognises that the majority of visitors to the Highlands are responsible and would highlight that an investment fund of £750,000 is available for a range of activities, such as waste disposal and waste management, with the ultimate aim of helping to support responsible and sustainable tourism for the Highlands,” she said.
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