Street collection permit

A street collection permit is required if the collection is for charitable or similar purposes and the Council will vet the suitability of the applicant and will check that the money collected goes to the stated purpose of the collection. Consideration will also be given to the number of other collections taking place on the appropriate date and to the location of the collection.

It is often assumed that collections can be held in shop doorways or car parks, without a street collection permit, because they are being held on 'privately owned land'.

This is not true, as the legislation does not mention the ownership of the land or treat collections on 'privately owned land' as exempt from the licensing regulations.

Any place that the public has access to, is a public place. A pedlars licence, issued by the Police cannot be used for this purpose. Only Local Authorities issue street collection licences under Section 5 of the Police, Factories, etc. (Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1916, as amended by the Local Government Act 1972 and Schedule 29 of that Act.)

There is no cost for the issuing of consent but there are rules to be followed in applying.

Street collections are usually made by charities. Collections usually take place in city centre on busy shopping days. Money is collected in tins. There are regulations, which govern this type of collection. Consents are restricted to enable charities to raise money without their collections clashing with those of other charities.

The purpose of the legal requirement to obtain consent is to ensure collectors are properly authorised and that money is collected in a secure way and the total proceeds collected are properly accounted for.

Fees

• The registration of street collection in Plymouth is free.

You can purchase copies of the Act from the Office of Public Sector Information. You will need to download and print forms from this website, before use.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

	Application form for a street collection permit - application for a street collection permit. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 65KB
	Street collection financial statement - street collection financial statement. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 41KB
	Street collection regulations - guidelines for street collection regulations. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 45KB

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