Charity street collection permit

A street collection involves collecting money or selling articles in any street or public place for the benefit of a charity.

On this page:

Permits

A permit will be required if a charity collection is made in a:

highway
public bridge
road
lane
footway
square
court
alley
passage
supermarket car park
part of land owned by a town or parish council that the public have access to (such as a village green, recreation area or community field).

This list is not exhaustive. If you are in any doubt whether you need to obtain a permit, contact us providing the location you wish to collect from.

It is your responsibility to obtain permission from the owner of the land where the collection is to take place. This will need to be provided with your application for a permit.

The purpose of the legal requirement to obtain a permit is to ensure that:

collectors are properly authorised
money is collected in a secure way
the total proceeds collected are properly accounted for.

Apply for a permit

Applications must be received at least ten clear working days before the date of the requested collection.

Some dates can get booked very quickly, so we advise you to apply as far in advance as possible to avoid disappointment.

You can apply online via the GOV.UK website using the link below.

Apply for a charity street collection permit

Alternatively, you can download an application form below and send it to us using our contact details.

Charity street collection application form (Word doc) [59KB] (opens new window)

There is no cost for issuing a permit, but there are regulations that must be complied with including how money is collected. The regulations can be downloaded below.

Street collections regulations (PDF) [97KB] (opens new window)

Unless there is a problem, we will process your application and the permit will be issued prior to your proposed collection date.

As part of the process, we may contact the police and other local authorities where street collections have taken place previously.

Collection dates and areas

We control the number of permits issued for collection. This helps to:

avoid saturation of an area by an excessive number of collectors
prevent the public being inundated with numerous requests for donations
avoid clashes and disagreements between collectors for different organisations.

Therefore we will only issue one permit for a particular area on a particular day. This will be on a first-come first-served basis for those collections proposed for streets, roads or town centres.

If a number of charities wish to collect at the same event on the same day, these will be permitted. However, you must obtain the permission of the event organiser first. The booking confirmation will need to be provided with the application.

If you have a particular date in mind for your proposed collection, check that the date is available before submitting your application. We keep an online public register of street collections we have already approved which can be viewed on our public register. Alternatively, you can contact us.

After the collection

Within one month following your collection, you need to send us a statement showing how much money has been raised and the amount used to cover any expenses.

We will supply a statement form with the permit. This form must be certified by the promoter of the collection and either an accountant or an independent responsible person.

Even if no collection took place, you must submit a 'nil' return.

Statements can be submitted online, by email or by post to us.

Within one month following you collection, you also need to publish a statement in a locally circulating newspaper.

Full details on the requirements can be found in our street collections regulations (PDF) [97KB] .

Public register

We maintain public registers of charity collection permits.

View a register of all our Charity Street Collection Permit holders using the link below.

Charity street collection permits register

Contact details

You can contact us using the details below.

Email: licensing@nfdc.gov.uk

Phone: 023 8028 5505

Licensing Services
New Forest District Council
Appletree Court
Beaulieu Road
Lyndhurst
SO43 7PA