Supermarket group Waitrose has an enviable – and well-earned – reputation as an ethical business, one that wants to play its part in the community and to treat its staff and suppliers properly.

It also takes its corporate social responsibilities seriously and reports regularly on how it is managing its environmental impacts, how it is working with suppliers and local communities, and how its employees contribute to and share in the rewards of its commercial success.

In that context, it is perhaps surprising that it has upset a large number of local charities by preventing them from collecting outside its supermarket premises.

Yes, it has its own very popular Community Matters scheme which provides new money for charities on the basis of how customers ‘vote’ with a token after shopping in one of its stores.

Many of the island’s smaller charities, however, rely on an occasional ‘tin rattle’ and the former Safeway was the place to be for any organisation struggling to raise funds and reliant on just a handful of volunteers.

Some of the smaller ones have calculated that the loss of access to two of the island’s major supermarket outlets will cost them several thousand pounds.

For some charities, these might seem like small amounts to lose but for others it amounts to most of their annual fund-raising push. Since there are more than 250 local organisations that are members of the Association of Guernsey Charities, some will be tiny indeed.

No matter how small or how seemingly ‘fringe’ they may be, however, they and their members are committed to doing their best for their identified beneficiaries and that requires finding money from islanders in many and inventive ways.

Shaking a box outside a supermarket with the biggest footfall in the island comprising people who have set off with the intention of spending money is the closest many of those charities get to a guaranteed income.

The reasons given by Waitrose for stopping the island’s tin rattlers – with the honourable exception of Poppy Appeal Week – are understandable and credible.

However, the decision is an unwelcome blow for some charities and Waitrose would gain respect by reconsidering it.