SERVICES in Oxford should be paid for by a tax on tourists.

That is the bold claim by Tony Joyce, who after a decade as the head of Oxford Civic Society, is to stand down as its chairman.

Mr Joyce, from Blenheim Drive, North Oxford, said his proposal to make visitors pay a contribution to the upkeep of the city’s built environment would make Oxford a better place, and prevent it deteriorating through lack of investment.

Since becoming the society’s chairman, Mr Joyce, 81, has put the society at the forefront of efforts to protect Oxford’s heritage.

He has fought to secure a viable future for Oxford Museum and to bring about the extension of the city’s park and rides. He helped mastermind the launch of the city’s annual spring clean OxClean, oversaw the development of the Oxfordshire Blue Plaque scheme to commemorate sites of historic interest, and has been involved in planning battles from the redevelopment of Oxford Brookes University’s campus in Gipsy Lane to car parking around the John Radcliffe Hospital.

But it is the city’s failure to benefit from its nine million visitors a year that is exercising him. He said: “We have such a huge number of visitors to the city but we seem to be remarkably ineffective in capitalising on this.

“We have to find a way of getting visitors to contribute to what they enjoy when they come here. We need them to contribute more to creating far better facilities in the city that benefit both themselves and local people.

“I would like to see a visitor tax. It happens in other places, although not this country. It could be applied to those staying overnight in the city like a hotel tax. It could be done by adding a small charge to hotel bills with the money going towards paving, toilets and other improvements to the public realm.

“In my view nothing would put visitors off coming to Oxford. The reason visitors often don’t come a second time is because we do not provide them with good enough facilities.

“We just can’t afford to cope with nine million visitors on limited resources.”

Between 1968 and 1972 Mr Joyce served as the Usher (deputy head) at Oxford’s Magdalen College School, later becoming head of Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Plymouth College.

He returned to live in Headington on his retirement in 1992, becoming secretary of Highfield Residents’ Association and a founder member of the Co-ordinating Committee of Headington Residents’ Association, which he later chaired.

The Society’s new chairman is retired chartered civil engineer Peter Thompson.