Number plate recognition could be used to impose a levy on motorhome users arriving over the Skye Bridge or at its ferry ports.

A proposed charge for motorhome users heading to a Scottish island is gathering support, with number plate recognition believed to be the key to introducing the fee.

Leaders on Skye say they need powers to deal with the challenges facing island communities from growing tourist numbers, in particular the growth in motorhomes and campervans.

Skye Connect, the destination management organisation for the island, said such a charge would raise vital funds for the island where up to one million visitors are due this year.

Number plate recognition technology could be used to record motorhomes going over the Skye Bridge and the island’s three other exit and entry points, the body said.

Now, support is gathering for the idea with the chairman of Highland Council’s Skye and Raasay Committee backing the move. Two other members indicated their support for a motorhome levy at a recent meeting.

Chairman John Finlayson, a Highland Independent councillor, said it was “ridiculous” that motorhomes staying on roadsides and in car parks were not included in the Scottish Government’s coming transient visitor levy, or so-called tourist tax.

He said he believed that a charge for motorhomes would be supported by councillors and officials across the Highlands.

Cllr Finlayson said: “Campervans should pay a tourist tax and number plate recognition is the way forward given how they effect the day to day lives of locals. Absolutely we need to be charging campervans as the number of campervans coming this year, I believe it is almost double.

“You can’t drive from Kyleakin to Portree without every single space - whether it be a parking space or somebody’s gate entrance- having a campervan in it.

“If I was a businessman, that is the industry I would go into because every second vehicle on our roads is a campervan. The campervans now, well some of them are the size of a house.

“The impact they are having on the infrastructure in terms of the roads, the off-road parking and nuisance parking, it is massive.”

Last year, more than 3,000 motorhomes were found parked outwith campsites on Skye over a three-month period, a meeting of the Skye and Raasay Committee heard last week. But none of these vehicles would pay the transient visitor levy - or tourist tax - due to come into force next spring.

Difficulties in enforcing the levy on vehicles passing through multiple local authority areas led to most motorhomes being excluded from the draft legistlation.

Cllr Finlayson said: “It is ridiculous. The Scottish Government passed legislation to allow authorities to impose a tourist tax, but it should be up to individual area as to how they implement a tourist tax and to meet the challenges of an individual area .

“This is not just about Edinburgh. Unfortunately, a lot of the legislation that is passed is Central Belt-based. Skye is the second biggest tourist destination in Scotland. The biggest challenge we have got is probably campervans and yet we are not given the authority or the flexibility to do that.”

By-laws could potentially be used to bring in a motorhome charge for Skye, it is understood. Skye Connect said it welcomed the support from the Skye and Raasay Committee for the motorhome charge with further discussions with officials to be pursued.

Highland Council said it could not comment on remarks made by individual councillors.

Motorhome 'tourist tax' for Scottish island backed using number plate recognition cameras

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