by Scraggygoat » Thu Dec 12, 2019 12:54 pm
The only way it can be administered will be similar to overseas, as essentially a bed night tax per head on paid accommodation, whether that be hostels, B&B, formal campsites, or hotels, and possibly on rental of a campervan from a Scottish based firm. There won't be an exemption if your a Highland resident, as it would be too complicated to administer; how would a B&B owner actually check your a highland resident, are the council going to give us all 'resident' ID (at great expense, negating a huge chunk of the revenue generated...or are Highland residents going to have to apply and be charged for our ID, generating further revenue), or do we all show our Library cards???
Using a Vehicle Number plate system won't happened, as that would mean every hotel and B&B would have to input your licence plate to a central database every night, the database would then have to find the cars that had entered the highlands but not exited everyday (needing every authority boundary cross-point to have a camera), filter out all the registrations belonging to locals via the DVLA, and link with the DVLA to get the addresses of the 'missing' cars/campers......assuming the DVLA would be authorised to share the info. Charge letters would have to be issued, but visitors could just say...'I was staying with friends'...result enforcement collapses. Foreign plates would cause even greater problems as they are currently let-off many speeding offences as they are too hard to chase in a overseas jurisdictions.......system collapses, and would be prohibitively too expense to run.
A phone tracking system....in the highlands, your having a 'laugh' before we get to the privacy implications...
Roadside stop-over campervans and motorhomes will be increasingly considered venue sources, but that would require changes in the road traffic law (with safety implications) regarding layby stop-overs to allow overnight charging, then some form of quick-link code at the layby linking to a honesty payment system would have to introduced (as some crofters do for campers on common grazings), assumes a mobile signal, and also requires 'policing'.....alternatively the council will have to install pay and display everywhere. Again Highland residents are unlikely to escape...
Wildcampers...away from their cars, or without a car...forget it.
The ultimate result, assuming overnight parking charging isn't introduced, will be further animosity as Highlanders are likely end up paying taxes to stay in their own area, but will see campervan tourists many causing congestion, driving badly, parking up inconsiderately, littering, emptying grey waste (or worse) irresponsibly, and contributing very little to the local economy and not paying the bed night tax, but getting bed night revenue spent on them to try and mitigate the problems they create.
We will see continued exasperation from landowners and locals alike at the Ned like behaviour of some groups camping near or by the road....and who can blame them. Leading calls to modify the land reform act, and this will be just the what the SLE and right wing landowners want, as they can help support the local campaigns hoping with crocodile tears to get true wild camping banned as well.
