If you collect money or other goods, including making direct debit appeals for charity from house to house (door to door) or in our borough's town and village centres you will usually need a house to house collections licence or a street collections permit.
Charity Collections Policy 2023 - 2028
Our Charity Collections Policy was adopted by the Council in December 2017. This included the re-adoption of Model Street Collections Regulations. The policy was reviewed in 2019, 2020, 2023 and March 2025 and approved by the Council's Regulatory Committee.
A Pedlar's licence can be issued by the Police Chief Commissioner in the area that a pedlar lives but it does not cover charitable collections. A Pedlar has to fall within the definition of the Pedlar's Act 1871.
The following activities all
- collecting cash donations
- selling goods such as pin badges
- an appeal for direct debit donations (face to face fundraising)
- an appeal for donations of unwanted goods such as clothes and bric-a-brac need to be licensed unless the charity has a National Exemption Order (House to House exemption only):
An appeal for direct debit donations is not normally allowed in Runnymede's towns and village centres, but a small number of house to house licences may be granted. Each application will be treated on its merits.
Leaflets
You do not normally need a licence to hand out leaflets in our town centres promoting a business or charity, providing you are not soliciting people’s financial details or pledges for some kind of financial transaction in connection with a charitable appeal. However, you must not obstruct the highway or pavement. You must not cause any form of nuisance that would give rise to a complaint, nor put yourself or anyone else at risk by your behaviour or actions. We do not licence people to leaflet drop residential properties; nor conduct cold-calling to promote a business or charity or otherwise solicit information from residents. Where relevant, you must have the permission of the landowner to enter the curtilage of private property.
Fees
There is no charge for carrying out charity collections.
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