Highland Camper Tax

[clubchamp98]

It sounds as though they need to employ someone to go around and get people to move on, stop camping, parking etc illegally. If it is currently free for all then people will just keep rocking up and stopping where they can.

I'm not generally a fan of a tourist tax, I think they can be counter productive, but if tourism is getting out of control in an area then it may be required. Trial it for a year and see.

Aren’t they called the police!
If they are damaging places and littering fine them.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

My holiday house is there, I’ll probably(definitely) know her ??

Last year we stayed a few nights straight across the loch from her - in Badrallach with Seoras and Pauline. We thought my relative might not be around when we were planning our tour of that part of the world and didn't want to impose in any case...

She's a tough girl - by herself quite some time now since my cousin John died - and since he went she's built a beautiful new house overlooking the loch. Stunning.

 

[patricks148]

Aren’t they called the police!
If they are damaging places and littering fine them.

its not illegal to park in the street or a car park these are civil matters, Police a too stretch as it is to do anything about litter

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

i shudder to think what its like in some of the smaller places around the Highlands but Sneck has become a real problem, car parks and side residentual road full of camper vans, some nights along the road though the bught Park lines of them and all had to drive past a Cavan park owned by the council.
not only that back packers setting up camp in the park, in the Islands (trail across the ness, essentially a park) even in parks of Torvean Golf course at times this summer one night there we 10 tents set up in there. There are no Toilet facilites so these people a crapping in a busy park. all this tax is going to do is drive some that are already using camp sites to parking elsewhere causing more mess. If the money were going to pay fo some wardens to direct these people to designated sites fair enough, but it won't just a cash grab against the wrong people IMO

NZ have masses of campervan traffic but they have a quite simple solution to the problem Scotland is suffering. They have a Blue Badge licencing scheme.

If you have a Blue Badge on your campervan, then that signifies that your camper is totally self-contained i.e. it has an on-board toilet. If you are Blue Badge licenced you can stop up pretty unhindered and anywhere - if you do not then you can ONLY stop over in a camp site that has toilets. In addition to toilets and showers all these sites have toilet waste disposal dumps that campers MUST use. It is illegal for 'unlicenced' campervans to 'free stop'.

 

[clubchamp98]

its not illegal to park in the street or a car park these are civil matters, Police a too stretch as it is to do anything about litter

Yes but the tax could pay for some more litter police.
Can’t you pass a by law saying no sleeping on the highway.
Parking and camping are very different things.
I did say damaging and littering which are offences I think.

 

[patricks148]

Yes but the tax could pay for some more litter police.
Can’t you pass a by law saying no sleeping on the highway.
Parking and camping are very different things.
I did say damaging and littering which are offences I think.

i think some of the places marked up as no overnight parking are a civil offence so down to the council, as i said they used to have a couple of rangers who went round moving people out of these places and sening them to the camp sites. one of the worst places is by the River ness, its next to the fishing Baliffs, was walking past one morning with the dogs, the car park was full of Dutch camper vans, out of one some fat bloke, goes up behind a tree an has massive dose of runs all around the base, waddles back to his CV, it an area where familys go to feed the duck on the beach.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

i think some of the places marked up as no overnight parking are a civil offence so down to the council, as i said they used to have a couple of rangers who went round moving people out of these places and sening them to the camp sites. one of the worst places is by the River ness, its next to the fishing Baliffs, was walking past one morning with the dogs, the car park was full of Dutch camper vans, out of one some fat bloke, goes up behind a tree an has massive dose of runs all around the base, waddles back to his CV, it an area where familys go to feed the duck on the beach.

As per NZ - you just make it illegal for the camper vans to stop in such places unless they have self-contained on-board toilet.

 

[patricks148]

As per NZ - you just make it illegal for the camper vans to stop in such places unless they have self-contained on-board toilet.

they are already not allowed to stop, this car park is already signed as no overnight parking £200 fine, no one to enforce it and these are not the ones who will be paying the Tax its those who are using the facilites Provided so as i keep saying its just a cynical money grab by the council and will solve nothing other than make the problem worse

 

[Bunkermagnet]

they are already not allowed to stop, this car park is already signed as no overnight parking £200 fine, no one to enforce it and these are not the ones who will be paying the Tax its those who are using the facilites Provided so as i keep saying its just a cynical money grab by the council and will solve nothing other than make the problem worse

We have a similar problem in Kent, with foreign lorry drivers using the hard shoulders (A roads and motorways) to park for their mandatory rest period since the French brought in regulations that the lorry driver rest period had to be taken away from the cab. We dont have those regulations, so they park up overnight risking the pitiful £30 fine they might get if they get caught as that is cheaper than a bed overnight across the Channel.
They use the bushes and such as their toilet, which for highways maintenance isn't very pleasant at all...
Penalties aren't the problem, it's the enforcement of those penalties that stops the issues.

 

[clubchamp98]

they are already not allowed to stop, this car park is already signed as no overnight parking £200 fine, no one to enforce it and these are not the ones who will be paying the Tax its those who are using the facilites Provided so as i keep saying its just a cynical money grab by the council and will solve nothing other than make the problem worse

Yes I agree most councils go for the easy target and don’t actually deal with the problem.

 

[clubchamp98]

i think some of the places marked up as no overnight parking are a civil offence so down to the council, as i said they used to have a couple of rangers who went round moving people out of these places and sening them to the camp sites. one of the worst places is by the River ness, its next to the fishing Baliffs, was walking past one morning with the dogs, the car park was full of Dutch camper vans, out of one some fat bloke, goes up behind a tree an has massive dose of runs all around the base, waddles back to his CV, it an area where familys go to feed the duck on the beach.

Did the Rangers work ?
Why did they get rid of them ? As that seems to be the answer.
Surely they would pay for themselves if the problem is big enough.

 

[patricks148]

Did the Rangers work ?
Why did they get rid of them ? As that seems to be the answer.
Surely they would pay for themselves if the problem is big enough.

to an extent, no where as many Toursistsas now. you can't move here in the summer the place is rammed, cheap holiday now for many europeans

We also get travellers come up for the summer to work, gardening, Driveways ect and they have been persuaded to used the council run camp site....where are they going to go next year if its going to cost them an extra £120 each for the summer??

 

[Doon frae Troon]

My old council used to run a team of six mobile rangers [250cc motor bikes]
They did a great job reducing vandalism/theft, keeping parks safe, opening and closing facilities, checking fishing permits and evening golf ticket dodgers.
It was an expensive service and the first act of a new Tory Council was to cut it.

 

[patricks148]

My old council used to run a team of six mobile rangers [250cc motor bikes]
They did a great job keeping parks safe, opening and closing facilities, checking fishing permits and evening golf ticket dodgers.
It was an expensive service and the first act of a new Tory Council was to cut it.

HC is Independant i think, but they made massive cuts a while ago, only the lower paid guys that did the work, couldn't afford to pay off the dead wood managers as they would have all been due large redun payments. the guys who were the rangers worked for Parks dept, they outsourced most of that which was a disaster, had 5 years of it being done by outsorceing. layed off all the parks guys sold off all the equip cheap... company that got the contract were cutting corners, but that all they were cutting... grass in some parts was not getting done for months on end. Council are now having to take it all back in house re employ and get all new eqp, costing a small fortune

 

[stefanovic]

Everywhere I go these days I see compounds full of new camper vans and motor homes, just waiting to spill out on to the road. The one off the A5 near Shrewsbury is like a small city.
I remember the days when Devon and Cornwall and the Scottish islands were places of mystery. They ain't now.
By reading a map you could backpack your way around, seeing the sun set over the sea and mountains.
Camping on the ground was always uncomfortable but it helped provide a lifetime of memories.
Sat Navs, soft beds, DVD's, never missing EastEnders have replaced that old back to nature.
The Applecross peninsula single track road is now one long line of vans.
The Road to the Isles is clogged with the damn things up and down the glen. It can only get far, far worse.

 

[CliveW]

Perhaps the proposed 700% increase in VED for campervans will cut the number on our roads.

 

[stefanovic]

Perhaps the proposed 700% increase in VED for campervans will cut the number on our roads.

If they are forking out £40,000 to £60,000 then another one off payment of £2,000 isn't going to make much difference.
'Touring' caravans pay no additional tax. Makes no sense to me.