IT’S great to see that the Bolton News did a poll which shows 91 per cent of voters want chugggers (professional charity fundraisers) banned from Bolton.

I’m a volunteer and I’ve been called an idiot by charity muggers in Bolton for giving up my time to collect while they are on £12 an hour plus expenses, plus commission — all of which they take out of donations.

BBC’s Money Box programme says only 10p in the pound raised by chuggers actually reaches the charity.

Chuggers get 104 days a year to collect in Bolton for any charity they like whilst we volunteers only get one day a year per charity.

Most chuggers don’t even work for the charity — they are agency sales professionals.

Bolton Council has met with the PR people for the chuggers — the PFRA (who also gets a cut of donations) — and fallen for the same promises of good conduct.

But research shows that it takes 180 approaches by a chugger to get one signature, one in 10 of these approaches is in breach of the rules, but no chuggers get sacked for this.

Chuggers are only supposed to take three steps towards people but every day you can watch them ignoring even this basic rule. Chugging has brought words like harassment and aggression into charity work.

Other councils have banned chugging altogether but I’m sure Bolton Council will not do it.

Peter Quinn Events Organiser for the Bolton-based volunteer group Charity Aid