A council in one of Britain's most popular seaside resort towns is planning to hammer visitors with a new tax to cover the costs of dealing with rampant anti-social behaviour and litter. Well-behaved tourists travelling to enjoy the delights of Bournemouth, in Dorset, could be asked to shoulder the costs generated by some badly behaved beachgoers.

Officials in the seaside town want government clearance to make hotels and B&B owners to start charging guests a tax on top of their accommodation bills. The extra income will go towards the ongoing costs of 'managing' the Dorset resort's popular beaches and seafront area during busy periods.

This includes hiring more seafront rangers and clearing up tonnes of litter left on the beaches by selfish visitors.

During the middle of the recent heatwave council staff collected an incredible 83 tonnes of waste, including tents, food packaging and empty cans and bottles after everyone had gone home. If the Lib Dem-run council gets government approval to introduce a levy, overnight visitors can expect to pay about £2 per person per night, meaning a week's holiday for a family of four will be £56 dearer.

But hospitality chiefs say such a tax would only put people off taking domestic holidays. They also said it was unfair to make families staying in hotels pay to clean up after troublesome daytrippers.

Millie Earl, the leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council, said: "Our area is a resort and for the vast majority of people who respect our area, we really welcome them, but it is a very small minority of people who want to come and cause disorder and commit crime.

"It’s those people who we don't want to come to our area, and quite honestly, our message is that they're not welcome. However, we're calling on government for a visitor levy that would prevent the majority of managing the seafront from falling on local taxpayers' shoulders.

"We need people who are visiting to contribute towards that management of the seaside town and a visitor levy is allowed to happen in other areas, and it's unfair that it's not happening here."

But Alistair Hardyside, chair of the South West Tourism Alliance, said hotels and B&B owners should not have to recoup an extra tax on its guests.

He said: "Domestic tourism is already in decline in rural coastal areas in the south west. There has been a 21 per cent decline since 2025. So if you have a market that is struggling and in decline you probably don't want to whack a tax on top of it.

"The prices are determined by the market and by dynamic pricing and you can't just put money on top because if you put the price up you are going to have a reduced demand for your product.

"It will be very small micro-businesses that will have the burden of raising this tax.

"We know councils are hard pressed but to just tax accommodation providers as a way to rectify that seems to be deeply unfair."

Rosie Radwell, chair of the BH Area Hospitality Association, said: "It’s not fair to charge families that are coming down, staying overnight and having a nice time.

"They would be punished and forced to pay for the actions of day trippers who are causing all the disruption."

She said the industry has no issue with an accommodation levy if the money was going to be spent on putting on events to bring in tourists rather than just boost council coffers.

Richard Herrett, the council's portfolio holder for destination and leisure said: "We value the 10 million visitors we welcome to Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole every year, but we also experience significant additional pressures across the area as a result.

"We need to keep our beaches and towns clean, keep residents and visitors safe and manage parking and other travel into the area.

"Tourists are key to our economy, but this costs money, and being able to apply a levy to visitors would mean that our residents aren’t bearing this burden."

The council has also asked the government for permission to increase parking fines for visitors who leave their cars on double yellow lines, on grass verges and roundabouts and across private driveways. The maximum fine wardens can dish out is £35 which officials say isn't enough to put people off parking illegally.

Last summer BCP Council ran a trial where those penalties doubled. They want permission to make the increased fine permanent or run the trial again.

Ms Earl added: "We need higher parking fines, particularly to prevent the really poor and dangerous parking that we see in the summer months, people parking on roundabouts, parking across pavements, on verges; it really is unacceptable, and we need government to give us the go-ahead to raise those fines."