Agenda item

The Committee considered a report and associated annex with outlined proposed revisions and updates to the Council’s Street Collections Policy. 

The proposed revised policy had been updated in the following respects:

·         The removal of the need for a street collection permit on private land where access was restricted;

·         Additional guidance on the information required to obtain a permit by charities which weren’t registered with the Charity Commission;

·         Removal of the clause in the policy that required schedule form of statement for a collection which was nil, future collections would be refused.

Local authorities were unable to charge a fee for the issue of a street collection permit, so there was a cost to the Council in provision of the service. The revised policy proposed to remove the need for charities to obtain a permit for collections on privately owned land which would reduce the number of street collections permits that the Council had to process. This enabled resources to be deployed onto other statutory licensing work.

The Committee’s attention was also drawn towards the dispensations given to 2 charitable organisations in addition to the British Legion Poppy Appeal which were entitled to have more than one collection per year in the same area. It was noted that formerly Surrey Border Lions also received such dispensation but ceased to exist from December 2021.

It was noted by the Committee that a significant proportion of on street collections now took place in the form of card payment. Members were concerned that card payments could be made under the guise of donation to a charity, but in fact went to a fraudulent group or individual. It was confirmed under the existing provision that charities were required to include card and cheque donations in collection reports, as it was covered under ‘other items’, on the schedule form of statement. However concerns still remained in respect of ownership of card machines and further clarity sought in respect of reporting. It was agreed that further investigation to the issue would be undertaken by Officers and reported back to the Committee.

RESOLVED that

     I.        the revised Street Collections Policy, as per Annex A of the Agenda Report, be adopted; and

    II.        The Strategic Director - Environment & Community be asked to investigate and report back to the Committee in respect of the potential card handling issue.