Summer visitors are in line to face a “tourist tax” in the form of a charge to park in John O’Groats.
The proposal to introduce meters in the end-of-the-road car park at the holiday hotspot has been given the provisional thumbs-up from local community representatives.
Heritage GB, which operates a chalet complex in the village, leases the area which includes the start and end point for the stream of sponsored charity marathons between Land’s End and John O’Groats.
The firm, which now trades under the Together Travel brand, is seeking permission from site owners Highland Council to have the scheme up and running this summer.
It has pledged to earmark the proceeds for improvements to a trust which would fund improvements to the area.
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Eric Green, who chairs Dunnet and Canisbay Community Council, yesterday said it had initially been four-square against the plan.
But he said it has now given qualified approval after it was agreed local people would be exempt from the charges and that the money would be used to bankroll long-sought-after tourist-related upgrades.
He said: “At first, the intention was that everybody would be paying to park and we were not happy.
“Now that they would not be charged, we have agreed in principle with the scheme though we need to see the details of the proposal before we can give our final consent.”
The community council wants all Caithness residents to be eligible for a parking permit exempting them from charges, which would be imposed between May and September.
It is happy with Heritage GB’s plan to form a John O’Groats Development Fund, which the company would administer along with the community council.
Mr Green said: “It would, I suppose, act like a local tourist tax with all the proceeds from the fund going to support improvements to the area.
“In an ideal world, you wouldn’t want to do this but with public finances being as tight as they’ve ever been, we badly need a new source of funding.
“With the council struggling to afford to fix potholes, we need to fund alternative pots of money.”
Among early suggestions to benefit from the trust are a start/finishing line for the end-to-enders; improved signage and information for tourists; and new children’s play attractions.
The community council is pushing for tourist coaches to be exempt from the charges and for a ban on overnight use of the car park by Campervans. It also wants notices to explain what the charges are being spent on.
Mr Green is conscious of the comparison drawn between Groats and Land’s End, with the latter much more commercialised and where parking charges have been in force for many years.
“We’re not looking to go that way,” said Mr Green. “We just see this as a way of raising some cash we need to improve our offering to visitors.”
No-one was yesterday available for comment from the Cheshire headquarters of Heritage GB.