Leaflet laws are killing comedy, say campaigners It points out that a licence to hand out flyers in Basildon on a Saturday costs £350. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 allows local authorities to designate areas "where it is satisfied that the land is being defaced by the discarding of free printed matter." The legislation was brought in to prevent littering, but opponents claim charges are "prohibitively expensive" and beyond the pockets of promoters staging small-scale events. According to the campaign, several West End comedy nights have collapsed - and audiences for others have been drastically reduced - after Westminster Council introduced rules on leafleting. The campaigners cite Morecambe and Wise and the London Comedy Store performers Paul Merton, French and Saunders and Rik Mayall, all of whom began their careers in small venues which relied on local leafleting and word-of-mouth. Lord Clement-Jones, the Lib Dem peer, is planning to bring a private member's bill requesting an exemption from leafleting restrictions for small-scale cultural and community events. He said: "The Act already provides exemption for political and religious leafleting, or leafleting on behalf of a charity. A wider exemption would avoid the unnecessary penalisation of small-scale events that are so valuable to community life. Josie Appleton of the Manifesto Club, which campaigns against "the hyper-regulation of everyday life," said: "Many arts clubs, even in the age of the internet, still depend on leafleting to attract local audiences but smaller businesses often cannot afford to buy licences, especially in this financial climate. Councils cite littering as a reason - but we believe the reason reasons are to do with cynical revenue raising and red tape.