A COMMUNITY has started a petition to ban cold calling, saying residents have been subjected to “bullying” and “emotional blackmail” by charity canvassers.

Residents living in the Valley Road area of Northallerton have started a petition to keep cold callers out of their neighbourhood, after being repeatedly targeted by charity canvassers during evenings.

Resident Doug Doherty said: “A lot of people are not aware these charity canvassers are employed by private agencies on behalf of the charity.

“I’ve witnessed members of the community being subjected to emotional blackmail and even bullying.

“I had some at my door recently. They said they were licensed by trading standards and North Yorkshire Police. This just isn’t true. I checked with trading standards and they don’t licence such things.

“A lot of the time they’ll canvass the area, leave it a couple of days and recanvass again. We’ve just had a bellyful of them.”

Now Mr Doherty has started a petition to get the area designated a No Cold Calling Zone, which has left at Cravens Foodstore on Valley Road.

For North Yorkshire County Council’s trading standards to create the designated zone, there has to be evidence there is a demand in the community. It will then put up signs and send households information packs.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said: “We would say to communities who want to become no-cold calling zones, by all means submit your proposals to trading standards and we would investigate it and seek local opinion.”

Although No Cold Calling Zones cannot stop people from knocking on doors, Mr Doherty says it will give many residents the confidence to turn persistent unwanted visitors away from their door, as well as help raise awareness of bogus callers.