Manchester has become the 40th city to implement a face-to-face management agreement with the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, seeing street fundraising limited to four areas of the city centre, three days a week.

There will be no evening or weekend fundraising and just five fundraisers will be allowed to work in each zone between 9am and 6pm following the agreement between the PFRA and city management leaders CityCo. 

The organisations are confident that "shoppers and visitors will welcome the agreement" which will be implemented from Monday 28 February. 

A spokesperson for the PFRA assured charities that the agreement was about "guaranteeing access for fundraisers, not restricting it" and that the action was indicitive of "responsible self-regulation". 

The street fundraising agreement will see the PFRA brought in to regulate if a charity breaks the restrictions via a dedicated reporting line for abuse of the agreement. The public can report any deviation from the rules by emailing [email protected]. 

Dr Toby Ganley, PFRA’s head of policy, said: “CityCo staff and council officials have put a lot of time and effort into getting this agreement with the PFRA right and we believe it will be effort well spent. Any time a fundraiser breaks the agreement or the best practice code, CityCo can come straight to us and we’ll put it right."

Manchester's four dedicated fundraising zones are:

Zone 1 – The bottom of Market Street under the canopy near Boots
Zone 2 – The Oldham Street end of Piccadilly Gardens near the statue
Zone 3 – Outside entrance to the Manchester Arndale, next to the Manchester Wheel
Zone 4 – St Ann’s Square outside the Royal Exchange Theatre