A PLEA has been made for a tourist tax to pay for more facilities to cope with the growing numbers of visitors to Skye.

Businessman Roger Booth, who has been forced to clear up human waste and other detritus at one of the island’s beauty spots, said a small fee could be charged at the Skye Bridge to help pay for better waste facilities and more public toilets.

His call follows a series of reports that the island’s infrastructure is on the verge of collapse because of the number of tourists.

Once a place of peaceful beauty, Skye’s popularity has soared in recent years as a result of music videos, films and TV productions such as Outlander and Macbeth which have used the island as a backdrop.

The permanent population of 10,000 now rockets to around 66,000 at the peak of the summer causing locals a host of problems.

Booth, who runs a food van at the Quiraing beauty spot, said a tourist tax could help alleviate some of the pressures.

“True walkers want to come here and enjoy it and not see the mess and be driven off and not want to come back,” he said. “Even £1 a person, I am sure people wouldn’t complain. It would be put into the island economy for better toilets, better waste facilities, better parking facilities and better roads.”

A tourist tax was also suggested last year by Highland councillor Maxine Smith, leader of the SNP group, who pointed out that it worked effectively in the US and other parts of Europe.

The local tourism group Skyeconnect last month called for a long-term strategy to deal with the problems following complaints that visitors are relieving themselves at beauty spots where the public toilets are either closed or non-existent.

Other islanders are reporting serious problems caused by traffic congestion, particularly at the Fairy Pools at Glen Brittle which attract hundreds of tourists every day during the peak of the season. With insufficient parking, residents say access to their homes is often blocked and claim that emergency vehicles would struggle to attend any accidents.

“For the residents down in Glenbrittle life is pretty much a nightmare most of the year now,” said Skyeconnect’s secretary Rob Ware. “We don’t want to turn Skye into Disneyland, but I think there has to be an overall tourism strategy that looks 10, 20 even 30 years ahead.”

Other problems raised at a recent meeting of Skyeconnect included the decline in island bus services and how that affected both visitors and local people trying to work in the tourist industry; the state of the Armadale-Mallaig ferry service; the need for affordable housing both for local people and as accommodation for people coming to the island to find work; the problems caused by the lack of broadband connections and the failure to roll-out superfast to so much of the area; and the possible options for attracting additional money to spend on improving conditions.

Some islanders have started a fundraising campaign to raise enough cash to improve car parking and possibly even set up a shuttle bus service. Many say they would support a tourist tax.

However, a Highland Council spokesperson said a law change is needed before introducing a new tax. “We would need legislative change to be able to levy any tourist tax so this is not an option currently available to Highland Council.”