Charities set to be exempt from car boot fees

Registered charities, groups representing good causes and other not for profit organisations are set to be exempt from car boot sale fees.

All organisers of car boot sales are currently required to pay the Council a fee of £3 per car under the Council’s arrangements for discretionary fees and charges, however changes have been proposed after groups stated that the levy imposed by the Council was severely impacting the level of income that they raised for their chosen charity/cause.

Councillors are likely to rubber stamp the changes at a cabinet meeting next Monday (19 September).

All organisers of car boot sales are currently required to pay the authority a fee of £3 per car under the Council’s arrangements for discretionary fees and charges.

Those deemed to be exempt will be kept on a register that will be monitored over time. Other uses who are not exempt will continue to pay the fee.

The report due to go before Councillors, reads:

“A positive impact of the proposal would be that those groups working in the interests of the local community would be clearly supported by the council in their endeavours.

“However, in order to ensure that exempt organisers were accountable for monies raised being spent appropriately, it would be a requirement of the exemption that they complete a proforma identifying after each car boot sale: the amount of money raised by the car boot sale; how much was retained for administration etc; and the amount generated for the good cause or local interest.

“This approach is currently adopted in relation to street collections and is considered to work well.”

The report concluded: “If the new criteria were to be adopted it is anticipated that the income to the Licensing section from car boot sales would reduce by around £6,000 per annum.

“Reducing the policing of car boot sales by Licensing / Trading Standards staff would however enable other priority work areas to be addressed. It is anticipated that income arising from this work will be sufficient to offset that lost by exempting certain categories of organisation from the discretionary charge levied on each vehicle attending a car boot sale.”