If you collect money or other goods, including making direct debit appeals for charity from house to house or in our borough's town and village centres you will usually need a house to house collections licence or a street collections permit.
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 June 2019, June 2020 and November 2020 and approved by the Council's Regulatory Committee.
Charity Collections Policy 2020 - 2023
COVID-19 additional information and guidance
All fundraising activity should be properly risk assessed but the Council cannot sanction any risk assessments as being covid compliant. Any non-compliance with social distancing guidelines (where in place) is enforceable by the HSE.
Each application will be treated on its merits.
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 promoting a business, 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, 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.
Fees
There is no charge for carrying out charity collections.
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