A far north Queensland mayor says some councils are not getting much return from their spending on national parks.

Delegates at the Local Government Association Conference of Queensland in Cairns have agreed to lobby the State Government to share the cost of rubbish removal from the parks.

Cook Shire Mayor Peter Scott says it is not receiving park entry fees to offset the cost, which can be about $2,000 per removal.

Councillor Scott says it is costing his council about $25,000 a year.

“But also when you get into these remote sort of areas a lot of these tourists that come in are self-contained,” he said.

“They provision themselves in Cairns and Mareeba. When they get up our way they don’t … go and buy a lot from us, so there’s not much value as far as our local economy goes, as far as income goes but there’s just this expense that the ratepayers do have to look after.”