The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association has called for meetings with Norwich City Council officials after reports that face-to-face fundraisers are causing concern among local businesses and shoppers.

Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the PFRA, has contacted local officials to set up a formal site management agreement for the city to replace the informal agreement which has been in place since 2003.

The action was prompted by a report in the local media last week which called for action to be taken to reduce the numbers and monitor the behaviour of charity fundraisers in Norwich. However, Aldridge has contacted the paper, the Norwich Evening Post, to dispute its report that there was no way of limiting the activity of fundraisers in the area.

Aldridge has called for a meeting with Stefan Gurney, chairman of the Norwich City Centre Partnership, to discuss setting up a formal site agreement. Norwich City Council councillor Antony Little has also been contacted by the PFRA and will suggest that the council’s licensing department work on a framework for face-to-face with the regulator.

Gurney, speaking to Civil Society, said that a disproportionate amount of attention had been placed on fundraising in the local news report, and that he was largely concerned with street peddlers and trading. He said that fundraisers appeared to be better regulated than street traders, but suggested that the problem had become an issue for local police. Norfolk Police did not confirm that this is the case.