Street collection permit

A street collection is a collection of money or the sale of articles in a street or public place for charitable or other purposes. Anyone wishing to carry out a street collection must apply for a Street Collection Permit. Permits are restricted to enable charities to raise money without their collections clashing with those of other charities. Street collections are usually made by or for charities. A charity (or charitable organisation) need not necessarily be a registered charity but should have charitable aims, excluding political or commercial aims.

How to apply

To make a collection you must:

• be acting for a charity or other non-profit organisation  (if you are not employed by the organisation you are collecting for, you must have written agreement from them for the collection)
• be 16 years old or over

You will need to provide us with:

• information of any contracts with any charity which is to benefit from this collection
• list of trustees (if applicable)
• previous years accounts (if available)                   
• literature on organisation(s) who will benefit

If you do not work directly for the organisation you are collecting for, you must include a Letter of Authorisation from the organisation to confirm that you are authorised to collect on its behalf.

When to apply

We would ask that you apply for your permit at least one month before your proposed collection date. We may be able to grant a permit in less than the one month period, should we believe there to be exceptional or special circumstances. 

Street collections can be popular and dates can get booked quickly. Contact Licensing to see if a certain date is free before making your application, but the only way to guarantee a permit for your required collection date is to submit your application as soon as you can.

Applicable fees

There are no fees for this permit or to submit a return.

What we do when we get your application

When we receive your application we will consider whether or not to issue the permit on the basis of the information you have supplied. We will also check our records to look at any previous street collections for which you have been given a permit. 

Please note there are restrictions on the number of permits you may have in the following areas:

• City of Durham
  • two collections per year, per applicant - these may be one Saturday and one weekday 
• Easington
  • two collections per year, per applicant
  • land owners permission is needed for collections in Peterlee town centre, Byron's Place Shopping Centre and Dalton Park Shopping Outlet
• Sedgefield
  • land owners permission is also required for collections taking place in Newton Aycliffe shopping centre.
• Teesdale
  • four collections per year,  per applicant
• Wear Valley
  • three collections per year, per applicant - these may be one Saturday, one Thursday and one other day

Reasons why your application may be refused

Your application may be refused because you have:

• failed to provide us with a Form of Statement for a previous collection
• provided incorrect or misleading information on your application form
• failed to carry out previous collections in accordance with our conditions or regulations
• been refused a permit by another council
• been prosecuted or investigated by the police or Charity Commissioners

If we think the amount being applied for it too low for a charity collection, we will also refuse your request.

What to do if you have not heard back from us (tacit consent)

If you have not heard from us by the end of the target completion period we specify for dealing with your application, you have the legal right to act as though your licence has been granted. This is known as 'tacit consent'.

Our target completion period for processing a correctly completed application is 10 working days. We aim to acknowledge your application within two working days of receipt. Please Contact Licensing if you have not received acknowledgement within five working days.

After you have done the collection

Within one month of the collection, you need to submit a  Form of Statement to us. If you do not do this, further applications may be  refused or you may receive a fine.

If the collection does not go ahead, you will still need to submit the Form of Statement but complete it as a `nil' return to show that no money was collected.