Chuggers face Cannock Chase town centre streets ban

The proposed ban will apply only to paid charity workers who ask people to commit to direct-debit payments, not to traditional cash collections by volunteers shaking tins.

District bosses say their hands have been tied by outdated legislation going back almost 100 years.

However, they have now approached a fundraising regulatory organisation to take action on their behalf against the opportunist collectors.

Sean O'Meara, Cannock's senior licensing officer, said that direct-debit fundraising had become very common and increasingly difficult to manage.

"We have difficulties with clashes when we have promised the town centre exclusively to a charity for the day and these direct-debit fundraisers turn up," he said.

"We don't know when they are going to come, and have no control over their numbers or behaviour. There is already a code of practice but it is difficult to enforce."

He said the problem was complicated by the fact that legislation is 'unclear or silent' on the issue of street collections.

As a result chuggers - a nickname coined from the phrase 'charity muggers' - are operating in Cannock without a street collection permit.

In the past the council has tried to enforce the law by writing to the offending companies advising them they are breaking the law.

But Mr OMeara said: "This has become more onerous and ever more difficult to enforce.

"Prosecution would be time-consuming, expensive and potentially problematic, partly because formal action could only be taken against the individual collection companies and not on a collective basis."

Under a new agreement with the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, being discussed today, the council would hand over enforcement to the authority.

The new deal bans chuggers from the area around Littleton Court and the war memorial in Cannock town centre. They would also barred from coming to the town on Fridays and Saturdays when only traditional tin-shakers will be allowed.

The paid fundraisers will be restricted to four in number and can operate on just two days a week, between Monday and Thursday.

They will be allowed only on the pedestrianised area of Market Square, between Market Place and Church Street, Market Hall Street between Market Place and 16 Market Hall Street, and High Green between Market Place and Manor Avenue.

In Rugeley a total of just two fundraisers can work in the town at the same time.