Why I think the £40 motorhome pass for Highlands should be scrapped as fewer than 40 bought

The £40 motorhome pass designed to help regulate the huge growth of holiday vehicles in the Highlands should be scrapped, one MSP has said.

Edward Mountain, Conservative member for Highlands and Islands, said the scheme was “not working” with only around 40 permits sold since it was introduced in July. The pass allows motorhome users to stop overnight in a network of council-owned car parks over a seven-day period and use leisure centres for washing and showers.

The scheme was brought in amid the rapid rise in motorhomes, but has been condemned by establish caravan parks, which claim the permit is unfair and poses a threat to their business.

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Mr Mountain said: “What is also clear is that the Highland Council scheme for allowing campervans to park in their car parks is not working . The latest figures show that the scheme that was introduced on July 1 only has enticed 30-plus people to go into the campsites.

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“I am going to encourage Highland Council to scrap this scheme. I don’t think it is working. We should be encouraging the 27 per cent of motorhome users on the North Coast 500 who don’t use campsites to go into local campsites and use the facilities they provide.”

Mr Mountain also claimed the scheme cost £2 million - a figure that was described as “utter nonsense” by Councillor Ken Gowans, chair of economy and infrastructure at Highland Council.

Last week, Cllr Gowans met with campsite operators to discuss their concerns in a “passionate” meeting. He said the pass would remain in place, but its development would continue.

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Cllr Gowans said: “It was a passionate meeting, to be honest, but I wanted it to be a solution-focused meeting. This is a new initiative that we have undertaken and it is one where we are not going to get everything right first time.

“We are listening closely to what the industry is telling us and we will factor this into any future developments. What I have been surprised at is how vigorously they have reacted to it. It is quite unusual, actually. We are not in any way dismissing them. In fact, we want to hear more.”

He said Mr Mountain had never been in direct contacted or made any representation to the council over the issues.

Cllr Gowans said: “His conservative councillors all voted for this too.” He said the pass had been brought in as part of the budget process with no objections raised during a widespread consultation.

It was introduced to try and deal with the “enormous increase” in motorhomes and campervans, which had been particularly prevalent since the pandemic.

Cllr Gowans said the rise in vehicle numbers had brought a “change in profile” of visitors with more “unruly” people arriving.

He said: “We also recognised that a lot of them were staying in our car parks overnight and some of these people were a different type of tourist who would normally go to a campsite. This was a different segment of the market, if you like.

“What we began to see was a much more of unruly type of person who weren’t familiar with visiting fragile places - not only fragile environments, but also fragile communities. What we thought was by offering, at what we thought was a reasonable fee, was that we could start to regulate this a little better.”