Small Society Lotteries

Can anyone advise? I work for a large national charity, with local branches throughout the UK. One of our branches wants to apply for a small society lottery license for an event held in their area. The local council has told them that they cannot apply locally and that the application must be handled where the charity's head office is based (100 miles away) Is this correct, it certainly has never been the case in the past. Cheers, guys.