Fundraising body tells members to ignore council threats to prosecute over "chugging"

An association of fundraisers has told its members to ignore a local authority’s threats to prosecute them under local byelaws, saying it is “entirely confident” that the council will fail if it goes down that route.

The Professional Fundraising Regulatory Association was responding to a letter from Wolverhampton City Council in which the authority announced that it intended to enforce a byelaw preventing people from advertising or soliciting for any service or gather information for use in the supply of goods and services.

The local authority told the PFRA to warn its members that charities working in Wolverhampton would be prosecuted and face a fine of up to £500 if there were complaints from the public about nuisance paid street fundraisers – also known as “chuggers” or “charity mugging”.

The council said it would be prioritising measures in this area “in a bid to enhance the city centre for shoppers and visitors”.

Its Leader, Cllr Roger Lawrence, has also asked officers to look at other ways of controlling fundraisers, including by placing restrictions on their numbers and the times and places they may operate.

Cllr Lawrence said: “We’re acting on evidence that, if unchecked, nuisance chuggers could deter visitors to the city centre. I’m determined this will not be the case, especially in the run up to Christmas.”

The PFRA and Wolverhampton held discussions between August 2010 and March 2011 about the potential for a site access agreement. However, the association claimed that the local authority pulled out of the negotiations two weeks before the date on which the council had wanted the agreement to start.

According to the PFRA, the next contact it had was when it received Wolverhampton’s letter this month.

In its reponse the association said: “The byelaw cited by the council refers to trading and soliciting goods and services. Fundraisers do not sell or solicit goods or services and we have confirmation from the Office of Fair Trading that fundraising is not trading.

“We are entirely confident that any prosecution the council chooses to bring under this byelaw will fail.”

Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West, meanwhile urged the two sides to restart talks.

He said: “I would like these discussions to reopen, a voluntary agreement between Wolverhampton City Council and the PFRA is the only sensible way to limit fundraisers in the city centre – I encourage Wolverhampton City Council to work closely with the regulatory body to resume talks and bring a solution to this problem.

“I will be working closely with both parties involved to ensure a solution is reached. What we want to see is Wolverhampton City Centre being an attractive and pleasant atmosphere for shoppers.”

Toby Ganley, PFRA’s head of policy, said: “We very much welcome Paul Uppal’s involvement. There is an established self-regulatory regime that can resolve all the council’s issues regarding fundraising in their town and at no cost to Wolverhampton’s tax payers.”

The association said it already had voluntary agreements in place in cities such as Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Norwich.

Philip Hoult