Dobbies has withdrawn its plan to charge charities for using space on its shop floors to collect donations after it was questioned over it.
The garden centre chain, one of many companies that operate in the same way, reversed its policy after the Edinburgh Evening News reported that the business had been planning to charge one charity up to £400 a week to collect donations in its stores.

Dobbies now says it will not charge charities for renting promotional space.

When contacted by diyweek.net, a spokesperson at Dobbies pointed out that the company was one of many others doing the same thing. They confirmed: "We have reviewed our community guidelines and will not be charging charities for renting promotional space in our garden centres.

"The Dobbies Community Plan is at the heart of everything we do and a large part of this involves fundraising work with our local and national charity partners. Dobbies is proud to have raised over £300,000 for our nominated charities this financial year and we will continue to focus our fundraising efforts on this."

Media and retail solutions specialist, Space and People, markets promotional space in shopping venues; a spokesperson there said charging charities had become "common practice" in the retail industry.

A spokeswoman told diyweek.net: "A lot of venues have their own local charity policy so that's dealt with differently and that's a case-by-case basis. Charges are dependent on the size of the site, the footfall and type of promotion. They [charities] pay for advertising on TV and newspapers, they don't get that for free, so they see this as buying another media."