Owners of short-term holiday let properties in one coastal district could face new charges under measures being pushed by Labour councillors.

Opposition members in Folkestone and Hythe say the local authority is missing out on revenue from these small businesses while still having to provide services such as waste collection.

By registering as a business, owners of homes let via platforms such as Airbnb are able to avoid paying council tax.

But because their incomes are relatively small they also tend to avoid business rates - in effect paying nothing to cover the services most households have to fork out for.

Cllr Connor McConville, leader of the Labour group on Folkestone and Hythe District Council, is proposing the council explores ways of making sure the more than 180 short-term lets in the district pay their way.

He has visited the outside of a number of the properties and believes most are using regular household bins to dispose of their waste.

"In this district taxpayers are paying for these places to get their bins collected for free," he said.

"Businesses in the high street don't get that, they have to have their own waste carriers.

"That's why I put this bit of business in to the council to a raise awareness of it and hopefully try and make some money or recoup some income from these businesses, because at the minute we're not getting anything."

Other services covered by council include police and fire services, leisure and recreation projects, such as maintaining parks, libraries and highway services, including street lighting and cleaning.

Cllr McConville's motion will be put before the full council when it meets on November 30.

He will seek a resolution to contact every self-catering holiday let business informing them of their duty to dispose of their commercial waste by legal means and show evidence of this to the council.

He is also asking the council to consider the establishment of an in-house commercial waste collection operation.

With Folkestone and Hythe becoming more and more attractive as a tourist destination, Cllr McConville believes now is the time to act on growing numbers of holiday lets.

He worries the towns could end up experiencing issues seen in the likes of Cornwall, or nearer to home in places such as Whitstable.

Canterbury City Council is believed to be missing out on almost £500,000 from hundreds of holiday lets escaping bills for council tax or business rates.

The figures reveal almost 250 self-catering retreats in the CT5 postcode - which covers Whitstable - avoid paying.

"It's a great place to live, so that's only going to attract more of these holiday let-type places..."

Cllr McConville added: "Folkestone is very up and coming.

"It's a great place to live, so that's only going to attract more of these holiday let-type places.

"We're still in a very early stage but it's really important that we have the conversation and come up with strategies to deal with it now."