Councillors to discuss motion to ban overnight parking of motorhomes in council-owned car parks in Golspie and Durness on Thursday

Councillors are being asked this week to impose an overnight ban on camper vans using council car parks along the NC500 road trip in Sutherland after angry locals said they were fed up with the dumping of waste and anti-social behaviour.

Highland Council's Sutherland County Committee previously unanimously agreed to recommend the ban on camper vans and motorhomes at two key car parks in its area where it has allowed overnight stays.

Now on Thursday the full council is being asked to approve the ban.

It comes just days after it was revealed Highland Council expects to miss its target to raise £500,000 from a voluntary scheme aimed at holidaymakers who visit the area in campervans and motorhomes.

The initiative, launched in July last year, was also designed to generate funding for infrastructure improvements and biodiversity projects.

But in a new report officials said only £20,000 was expected to be raised in its first financial year.

According to figures published in 2022, almost 36,000 motorhomes visit the Highlands in a year.

For a £40 seven-day pass the visitors can park overnight in some of the local authority's car parks, and get daily access to showering facilities in leisure centres.

The two car parks in Sutherland where local councillors want an overnight ban can currently host campervans at a cost of £10 a night.

These are in Durness and Golspie, and both lie on the NC500 route. Overnight visitors are only allowed to park for one night and then cannot return for 72 hours.

Daytime parking can continue as normal, but overnight stays would start to be policed by the council’s parking enforcement team.

Currently parking penalty charges are £100, but reduce to £50 if paid within the first 14 days.

The motion put forward by councillors Richard Gale and Jim McGillivray says: "Given the impact of overnight parking of camper vans in Council carparks leading to inappropriate waste disposal and other anti-social behaviour, the Sutherland Area Committee agrees to impose a ban on all overnight camper van and motorhome parking in Council car parks in the County of Sutherland with signage being put in place to direct them to alternative parking options in the local area.”

Cllr Gale said he had been "bombarded" by emails from angry people over the problems. At the car park in Shore Street, Golspie, there had been 12 campervans and motorhomes - including in the disabled parking bay - at one time.

Mr McGillivray added that the situation was being mirrored at Dornoch - which had signs warning against overnight stays, despite a private camp site only yards away.

"I am unhappy with the Highland Council's use of public money introducing an unfair competition with private camping and caravan sites," he said.

But officers have warned that it would have a big financial implication for the council, with additional costs of staff enforcement, ranging from £4100 for overtime using existing enforcement staff - up to £41,000 if an additional full time enforcement officer was required.

There would be one-off costs related to signage and marking changes estimated at £1,000 and "no assumption has been made" regarding loss of income.

Sutherland councillor Hugh Morrison, vice chairman of the Sutherland committee, said: "The community councils in certain areas of Sutherland along the NC500 are very unhappy about the way that Highland Council have dumped these mobile homes in the centre of their villages through this overnight scheme, which is only an invitation to pay anyway. There are no amenities close to these car parks as well."

Conservative MSP Edward Mountain has called for the scheme to be "scrapped".

"What we should be doing is encouraging the 27 percent of mobile home users of the North Coast 500 that don't use campsites to go into local campsites and use the facilities that are offered there," he said.

The council "going into competition with these businesses is madness".

The NC500 has been subject to constant complaints over various motoring problems.

Tensions on the road trip escalated over the years.

In 2018 police investigated a spate of incidents on the NC500 with attempts to puncture vehicles' tyres. Roofing tacks were found scattered on a road near Bettyhill.

Police have regularly carried out operations on the NC500 each year, catching scores of offenders, including for speeding.

The NC500 has been hailed by various top travel publications, National Geographic and American broadcaster CNN as one of the world's greatest drives and highlighted on TV shows such as Top Gear.

It is estimated to be worth more than £22m a year to the local economy.

However, the 516 mile circular route, in and out of Inverness, has been described as both a highway to hell and a road paved with gold - boosting tourism but with complaints from residents not just of speeding motorists but, conversely, also of slow moving convoys of motor homes and long tailbacks of bikers.

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