ALL charity house to house collections must be licensed.

That’s the strong new year message from Kirklees Council’s licensing manager Catherine Walter in a bid to stop bogus collectors operating in this area.

She said: “All house to house collections that purport to be of a charitable nature are required to be licensed by the council in whose area the collection is taking place under the House to House Collections Act 1939 unless the charity holds a national exemption from the Secretary of State.

“All exempt charities are known to the council and those charities do let the council know when they are collecting in the area.

“All other collections should have a licence from the council and the collectors must wear badges.’’

She added: “If a member of the public wishes to check whether a collection is licensed the first point of call should be to the licensing department of the council as it is us who hold the register.”

Contact Kirklees Council’s Licensing department on 01484 456858 or email licensing@kirklees.gov.uk

For more information about the draft policy go http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/business/licensing/pdf/housetohousecollectionspolicy.pdf