Visitor levy is discriminator say islanders

The proposal has been considered at two public meetings on the island, comments have been invited on the community council’s Facebook page and there has been an online public survey.

 

The community council says it has listened to that feedback, and "can confidently say that the Tiree
community is against the Visitor Levy in its present form".

 

Reasons given in a document approved at last month’s community council’s public meeting are that it will be a tax on islanders accessing essential services on the mainland, it will add to the cost of bringing in essential workers, as well as adding to the costs of visiting Tiree, which is already an inaccessible and expensive destination - it is believed that will drive down visitor numbers.

 

Other concerns are that any levy will bring some accommodation providers within the VAT threshold and the document also added: "There is a lack of faith that the levy raised on Tiree would be spent on Tiree under local control."

 

Tiree with its music festival, 10K and Ultramarathon races, and Wave Classic sees an estimated 26,000 visitors a year.

The community council’s official response to the levy proposal pointed out that a minority of its community, one-third in its survey, are in favour - in principle - of a tax on tourists. 

 

"Access points to some popular beaches do suffer from erosion. This needs expensive remediation, and some respondents stated that they agreed with the principle of ‘the polluter pays’.

 

"However, the proposed Visitor Levy is clearly discriminatory against islanders. Tiree residents have no option but to travel to the mainland to attend hospital clinics, specialist livestock sales, shops or family reunions on what is classified as a lifeline route. Early sailing times usually necessitate an overnight stay in Oban. A Visitor Levy will therefore be a tax on island life.

 

"There is a regular flow of essential workers - for example, heating engineers and surveyors - who will have to pass on this additional cost of visiting the island to their customers.

 

"There is strong support, 73 per cent of respondents, for the principle that the Levy collected on Tiree should be returned to the island, and be spent under local control. There is a strong suspicion that Tiree will get back less than it puts in," says the community council’s response.

The response also branded Argyll and Bute Council’s levy consultation as "inadequate, failing to
ask the central question: ‘Do you want a Visitor Levy?"

 

Tiree CC also says Argyll and Bute Council’s Island Community Impact Assessment on the levy is not fit for purpose - a point its members have made numerous times.

 

It is the community council’s view that Argyll and Bute Council should pause the roll-out of the Visitor Levy in its current form and go back to government ministers asking for an exemption for council residents to be added.

 

"We also seek a robust mechanism to return the levy to the specific areas of Argyll and Bute from which the funds are raised, and that local bodies then control how it should be spent. Until these changes are made, we do not support a visitor levy being imposed on Tiree," said Dr John Holliday on behalf of Tiree Community Council.

 

Linda MacLellan who runs Islay’s Bowmore Hotel was gearing up with other businesses and islanders for their turn on a consultation earlier this week, wanting to make sure their views "are listened to and that we are not just being talked at", she said.

 

In a letter to The Editor this week, she also said the levy being proposed was not a visitor levy but an accommodation levy affecting locals and workers having to stay away from home - including the council who will also have to pay more for its staff to work off the mainland.

 

She said with the cost of living already contributing to falling visitor numbers on Islay, coupled with the uncertainty of ferry availability, "It’s a double whammy", warning less tourists could lead to redundancies in the hospitality industry, including the island’s distilleries.

"It’s an ill-thought-out levy. The whole thing should go back to the drawing board and iron out the pitfalls," she added.

 

Other council-run visitor levy consultations still to come are at Kintyre Community Centre in Campbeltown  on Monday March 17, from 4-7pm; Inveraray Inn on Monday March 24 from 4-7pm, with a webinar online between 5.30pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday March 25 and also on Thursday April 3 from 9-10am.

 

A rescheduled visitor levy event on Mull will now take place on Thursday March 13, in Craignure Village Hall from 11.30am until 3pm.