Chugging is the worst and most damaging form of charity fundraising there has ever been – says a new report.

Charity Aid asked every council in the country about chugging and the responses revealed that many councils regard chugging as “aggressive harassment” of the public.

Chugging is the practice by paid professionals of stopping people in the street to ask for charity donations.

“Chugging now takes over £100m a year from donations which were intended for charity,” claimed Charity Aid chairman Peter Quinn.

“It’s brought words like intimidation and hard sell into what used to be a noble calling. Volunteer groups are unanimous in opposing it and some have disbanded in protest.”

Despite its name, Charity Aid is not a registered charity, but a fundraising project set up by United Press and involves volunteers from the North West of England.

Charity Aid says its survey shows that over 90% of the public are against chugging.

It also suggests that because chugging has been going on over 15 years, and records show that 750,000 people are signing up each year, it will eventually reach saturation point where chuggers may adopt more aggressive tactics to reach their targets.

Charity Aid also says that councils complain that site management agreements do not remove the problem, they instead "regularise chugging and give it a seal of approval": and Charity Aid suggests councils may then fear that chuggers feel they have the freedom to be more aggressive.

Charity Aid also says that rural councils which don’t have a problem with chugging are becoming concerned, that because chugging needs to go further to reach the same targets, it will infiltrate into their areas and become a problem for them.

Charity Aid says in built up areas town centre businesses are complaining that chugging is affecting their trade.

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