Highland campervan income even lower than thought?
Income from an effort to have campervan and motorhome tourists pay more towards the upkeep of local services could be even lower than previously suggested a Highland councillor has claimed.
Earlier this week we reported how the Highland Campervan and Motorhome Scheme had been set an annual income target of £500,000.
The scheme was introduced last summer as a £40 voluntary fee, with visitors who pay for it receiving a seven-day pass to use local facilities such as showers while helping contribute towards improvements to the likes of public toilets and wastewater infrastructure and helping the region provide more council-owned sites.
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A report going to Highland Council’s corporate resources committee on Thursday shows just £20,000 is forecast to be realised across 2024/25 - against the annual target of £500,000.
Nairn and Cawdor councillor Barbara Jarvie believes even the £20k figure is in excess of what will actually have been taken in.
“That would suggest they have sold 500 passes,” she said. “But given that when elected members were shown figures last August the total number of sales at that point was 30-something I can’t believe they have got near that in the months since.
“Not unless there has been a huge influx of campervan and motorhome visitors over the winter months that none of us have noticed!”
Cllr Jarvie also objects to a line about “key risks” in the report which states: “There are no identified changes to the key risks that have been identified for this Project.”
She said: “I would say that ‘detriment to existing businesses’ should be included as a ‘key risk’.
“We’ve got situations where campervan and motorhome owners are coming to the Highlands and not using facilities provided by campsite owners - and the council has this pass scheme that effectively condones that.”
Despite acknowledging that the scheme “will not achieve the target for the current financial year” the report states that ”over-performance” of some other income-generating projects partially offsets the shortfall for the campervan scheme.
