The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA) has told its members to ignore threats from Wolverhampton City Council to fine street fundraisers up to £500 using a byelaw introduced last year.

This week Council leader Roger 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.”

Earlier this month the Council wrote to the PFRA informing them that a byelaw introduced by the Council in 2010 would be used to fine charity fundraisers in the city. However the PFRA is confident that the byelaw cited applies specifically to trading and soliciting goods and services, and has replied to the council in writing.

In a statement the PFRA said: “We are entirely confident that any prosecution the council chooses to bring under this byelaw will fail.”

The council would not be able to hand out on-the-spot fines and would need a member of the public to make a formal complaint before a fine could be imposed in court by a magistrate.

Ian MacQuillin, head of communications, added that the PFRA was “disappointed” as it had been working with the Council last year on an agreement to set controls on fundraising in the city. The PFRA has secured similar agreements with other councils including Liverpool, Manchester and Norwich and said that working in partnership with the PFRA was the simplest way to regulate the practice.

A spokesman for the Council confirmed to civilsociety.co.uk that informal discussions with the PFRA had taken place but that it had “concluded we had other means at our disposal for dealing with this problematic issue which our residents tell us they want to see resolved”.

Since the byelaw was introduced in February 2010 no prosecutions have been brought. The Council said that the byelaw was originally introduced to deal with aggressive trading by mobile phone shops in the area, a problem that has now been resolved.