Your help needed to tackle cold callers

North Yorkshire residents are being urged to help to identify cold callers who make people feel pressured on their doorstep into buying goods or services they don’t want or need.

In a bid to help identify and take action against cold callers who break the law, North Yorkshire Trading Standards is asking residents to drop leaflets delivered to their homes by cold callers at collection points that will be set up across the county from 14 October for one week.

Collection points can be found at County Hall reception in Northallerton, register offices at Harrogate, Northallerton, Scarborough and Whitby and all libraries. Supermarkets such as Asda, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and others across the county are also supporting the initiative and will have collection boxes available.

County Councillor Andrew Lee, Executive Member for Trading Standards, said:

Trading standards officers rely on information provided by members of the public, especially in relation to cold callers, and that’s why we’re encouraging residents to take part. The information that officers collect will help them to tackle rogue trading, and in particular to protect our more vulnerable residents, who can be targeted by unscrupulous cold callers.

We are interested in leaflets offering services, especially home maintenance and gardening. It doesn’t matter when leaflets were delivered, so you can include leaflets received before 14 October. We’d be grateful if you could make a note of your postcode on each leaflet, so we can identify the areas in which they have been delivered.

We are not asking for flyers for local businesses, such as takeaways, supermarkets and corner shops, or catalogues for well-known beauty or home products. If in doubt, please drop off the leaflet.