If you wish to collect money or sell articles for the benefit of charitable or other purposes, then you must apply for a street collection permit.
Where can I collect money?
A collection can only take place in a street or public place.
A street includes any:
- highway and public bridge
- road
- lane
- footway
- square
- court
- alley, or
- passage.
A street collection permit is not required for a collection to be held, for example, inside a shop or a public house, or in the foyer of a cinema or theatre.
Please be aware that house to house collections (including pub to pub) are regulated separately.
Policy
Our policy for issuing permits is:
- Only charitable organisations be granted permits for street collections.
- Each charity will only be allowed one collection date per year (unless the proceeds of the collection are donated to a number of different charities).
- Only one charity will be able to collect on any one day, in any one area.
- Charitable collections will only take place on a Saturday (unless it is for a large scale or nationally recognised event whereby the collection can be authorised to take place on a different day of the week).
There are 
regulations [15kb] which govern this type of collection. Consents are restricted to enable charities to raise money without their collections clashing with other charities.
Apply for a permit
There is no fee for this application.
First contact a member of the licensing section and provisionally book the date you wish to hold the collection.
Where applicable, your application for a street collection [12kb] should include:
- Information about the charity or organisation who will benefit.
- Letter of authority from the charity or organisation who will benefit.
- Copy of any contracts between you and the benefiting charity or organisation.
Failure to submit the relevant information could lead to a delay with your application.
If a permit is granted, a form of statement [56kb] must be returned to us within a month of the collection date. Failure to submit a form of statement would prohibit a future collection.
