Watford Borough Council

It is illegal to hold a street collection to collect money or sell articles for the benefit of charitable or other purposes without obtaining a street collection licence from the Council if that collection is to be held 'in a street or public place'. 

A street collection permit is needed to hold a public charitable collection in a street or other public place. 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.

Private premises
Council permission is not needed to collect in the Harlequin Centre or in other privately – owned premises such as train stations or supermarkets – you should contact the premises’ managers directly for permission.

Direct debit collections
We take the view that soliciting direct debit donations is the same as soliciting for cash and a permit is needed to do this too, unless the charity is just handing out direct debit forms to passers-by.

Charter Place
We will only grant permission for up to four collectors at a time in Charter Place, which may be a combination of:

• two outside the Market
  
• two outside the Harlequin entrance
  
• two in Meeting Alley (by Burger King)
  
• two by the clock tower (by HSBC bank) but only if there is no street trading activities taking place.

No tables or chairs may be set up as part of the collection.

Applying
There is no cost for the issuing of consent but there are rules to be followed in applying. Street collections must be for a charitable purpose but do not need to be by a registered charity. Money is collected in tins. Regulations 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.

You may apply online. 

We aim to process your application within thirty days.  Under the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, tacit consent applies and you may go ahead if you haven't heard from us.  If your application is refused you may appeal within 28 days to the secretary of state. 

A return form must be completed following the collection and returned to the Council. This completed form should be returned to the Council within one month of the end of the collection. This form will be sent to you once your application form has been received, or you can complete and submit this form online.

An application form can be downloaded from the 'related pages' section.