| Council | Mechanism / legal basis | Key figures and requirements |
| Arun | Licence to run outdoor classes on council land, including beaches – free for not-for-profit / voluntary groups, who must still apply [Arun District Council] | Licence required to run outdoor classes or group activities on council land, including beaches (covers Bognor Regis and the wider district). The fee is waived for not-for-profit or voluntary organisations, but the application form must still be completed. |
| BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) | Permission required for outdoor fitness sessions in parks and on beaches [BCP Council] | Anyone running an outdoor fitness session on council open spaces without permission ‘may not be suitably insured or qualified to do so’. Covers parks including Poole Park, Baiter Park and Upton Country Park. |
| Bristol | Bristol has two schemes – one for its ordinary parks, one for the Downs (which has its own 1861 Act). Both work by the council using its landowner rights and old park byelaws to require a paid licence. [Bristol City Council] | Parks Business Licensing, live 1 April 2026. Annual fees (including VAT): 1 park £480; up to 7 parks £720; 8-15 parks £960. Commercial dog-walking: up to 7 parks £360; 8-15 parks £600. Application fee £60. 50% discount for Bristol-based businesses with turnover under £25,000 operating in ≤7 parks. Fitness capped at 1 instructor : 20 participants; more than 50 people needs separate event approval. Exemptions: non-charging activities, informal/family sports, exercising alone (jogging or solo yoga), free-to-join groups such as Parkrun, and walking your own dog. In practice, donation-based classes are charged: Chloe Broomby’s donation qigong and Julia Turner’s donation-based choir are both caught by the scheme. The Downs (separate): governed by the Clifton & Durdham Downs (Bristol) Act 1861 and set by the Downs Committee (councillors and Society of Merchant Venturers). £900/year for sessions under 19 people; £2,600/year for 20+, charged on the session’s maximum capacity regardless of turnout. |
| Camden | Fitness activity rules for green spaces – free classes under 10 people are exempt [Camden Council] | No licence needed for classes with fewer than 10 people, subject to a code of conduct (no use of park furniture or trees, no cordoning off areas, music kept low). For classes of 10 or more – including donation-based ones – an application to the council’s Events team is required. |
| Chichester | Paid licence [Chichester District Council] | £43/month for 1:1 sessions only; £87/month for group sessions. Covers seven named parks in Chichester city. Operators must hold appropriate qualifications and insurance. |
| Hammersmith & Fulham | Paid permit for commercial providers – free community sessions exempt from the fee[Hammersmith & Fulham Council] | All commercial physical activity providers need a licence, but the council states that ‘community sessions which are being delivered for free will not require to pay for a licence’ – they must register, but are not charged. |
| Lynton and Lynmouth (Devon) | Town council permission scheme, citing the Public Health Act 1875 directly [Lynton and Lynmouth Town Council] | Commercial operators need permission to run classes on the town’s open spaces or beaches, citing s.164 Public Health Act 1875 and s.19 Local Government (Misc. Provisions) Act 1976. Requires £5m public liability insurance, risk assessment, instructor certificates and first aid qualification. |
| Richmond upon Thames | Running a fitness class without council permission is a criminal offence (under a rule in their Public Spaces Protection Order). To get that permission, you have to buy a paid permit. [Richmond PSPO] | Permit priced on Maximum Potential Annual Attendance (MPAA): about £356-£1,634/year. Minimum / single session £67.90. Required for personal trainers (over 5 participants), boot camps, and group exercise / fitness classes. Backed by the borough’s PSPO, whose Article 17 makes running a class without consent a criminal offence. Enforced by contractor Parkguard with fixed-penalty notices. Advertising a class without consent is also barred (Article 21). |
| Sefton | PSPO bans gatherings of more than 40 people [Sefton Council] | The Coastal & Visitor Areas PSPO makes it an offence to organise or take part in a gathering of more than 40 people without written permission (capturing large beach exercise classes); enforced by fixed-penalty notice. |
| Southend-on-Sea | Event licensing (beach and parks) [Southend-on-Sea City Council] | Treats a beach or park class as an ‘event’: about 30 pages of paperwork – event application, event management plan, risk assessment, public liability insurance and a first aider on site – plus, in the Pilates case, £85 per week and an admin charge. The regime covers ‘event sites in the Town Centre, Seafront and Parks’. |
| Southwark | Paid permit for commercial activity – free classes get a free licence [Southwark Council] | A permit is required, but it is free if the class is free to customers. Sessions must not take place in playgrounds or bandstand areas. |
| St Albans | Paid licence, tiered by whether the activity is commercial, charity or community [St Albans City and District Council] | Commercial rates from £200/year (small group, 1-7 sessions/week) up to £2,800/year (50+ people, 5-7 sessions/week); £100 surveyor set-up fee. Community and charity activities – including those that are free to attend – get only a 60% discount, not an exemption, so a free donation-based class still pays 40% of the commercial rate. Requires £10m public liability insurance, DBS checks, risk assessment. |
| Stevenage | Licensed fitness/sessional activities, with a detailed code of conduct [Stevenage Borough Council] | Licence required; £5m public liability insurance. Code of conduct bans use of park furniture, pathways, formal gardens, and ‘aggressive, intimidating or unreasonably noisy’ sessions. |
| Swansea | Council beach-use fee applied to an existing free, donation-based class [Daily Post / North Wales Live] | £24.15 per session, applied from 2025 to a donation-based beach yoga class (average donation ~£2) that had run free and unbothered since 2015. After Helen Wilson refused to pay, the council granted an exemption – on condition that she is not permitted to charge a fee. |
| Thanet | Seasonal beach-trading licence [Thanet District Council] | May-September season: about £700 + a £380 ‘estate’s fee’ (~£1,080); full year is £1000 plus £380. Applicants must provide a risk assessment and hold public liability insurance, first aid and instructor qualifications. Made permanent with zoned pricing for 2026. For comparison, food/refreshment traders pay £1,655/year. History: in 2023 and 2024 the council ran a free ‘Coastal Wellbeing’ pilot at Walpole Bay, funding activities including SUP yoga and a movement-meditation course. In April 2025 it launched a separate paid concessions scheme explicitly inviting ‘fitness and leisure’ operators, and applied it to existing sunrise-yoga and swim-coaching businesses. |
| Tower Hamlets | Paid fitness licence – free/donation classes told to apply, no published exemption [Tower Hamlets Council] | Annual group fitness licence: £120-£1,440 depending on group size, session frequency and park (Victoria Park is more expensive than other parks). Personal fitness licence (2 or fewer clients): £120-£240. Day-rate from £50, plus a £25 admin fee. The council states that not-for-profit, free or donation-based classes ‘should still apply for a licence’, and publishes no fee exemption for them. |
| Waltham Forest | Per-class fee [Waltham Forest Echo] | £25 per class (about £5,000/year for a provider running four weekend sessions). Applied even to classes that are free to attend. |
| Waverley | Park hire (‘includes group exercise classes’) [Waverley Borough Council] | Parks can be hired ‘for an event or activity … including fairs and group exercise classes’. A fitness licence (once a week) is about £193.80/year. |
| Wyre (Lancashire) | Paid permit [BBC News] | Annual permit £25; limited to sessions of 12 or fewer people; covers personal training, martial arts, circuits, outdoor-gym use and ‘other similar activities that promote health and wellbeing’. |