Campervan visitors to Highlands and NC500 could make 'contribution'
Asked for her view on the suggestion that has been raised of a tax on campervans in the Highlands, given the congestion and impact, Deputy First Minister Ms Forbes replied: 'Well, as a local Highlander, I do understand the frustrations that people can often experience at the height of summer and we've done a lot over the last few years to develop facilities that actually reduce some of that congestion.
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'But the question that Highland Council are currently developing is around a visitor levy. And I think that whilst there are no plans to introduce a campervan tax, no plans, I am engaging very closely with Highland Council to make sure that any plans they progress with in and around tourism and reinvesting funding to reduce congestion takes into account all the different ways that people travel rather than just hitting the accommodation providers - so it's important that Highland Council have the ability to reinvest resources into reducing congestion and can do that through a multifaceted approach.'
Ms Forbes, who is MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch and also Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Gaelic, added: 'There are only five roads in and out of the Highlands, so it can't be that difficult to figure out who is travelling in, who is travelling out, and how you can work with people at that point to look at whether a financial contribution can be made.'
Asked if this could be along the lines of someone using a campervan making a similar contribution to that if they were staying at a hotel, in broad terms, Ms Forbes replied: 'Well, Highland Council piloted an approach last year, and it was a discretionary approach to see what would work, and it was a membership approach. And actually, I had a meeting with Highland Council this morning about it, about how they can build on that so that when a campervan turns up in the Highlands, they actually want to have good facilities as well, so there's an advantage to them as well as to the council to then reinvest, and so they're looking at different models, but this is all about a very local approach because - just to reiterate - the Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a campervan tax.'
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