Knife amnesty relaunched

13 November 2012

People in Suffolk are being encouraged to continue to bin their blades, as the county's knife amnesty is relaunched.

Following the success of the initial year-long amnesty, which saw 6125 knives deposited anonymously in four permanent and two mobile bins in 2011, four bins have remained outside Ipswich, Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds and Mildenhall Police Stations. These bins are owned by Suffolk's Community Safety Partnerships, who have kindly allowed them to remain in place and be repainted.

On Monday 12 November 2012, Chief Constable Simon Ash, teenage anti-knife campaigner Holly Watson and BBC Suffolk presenter Mark Murphy officially relaunched the bins, which are now all bright yellow. Holly Watson said: "I'm really pleased with how the bins look, anyone going to one of the four police stations can't miss them and I hope they will make people think more about binning their blades and not carrying a knife in the first place."

Mr Ash said: "It is over two years ago that the idea of a permanent amnesty was suggested by Mark Murphy, in response to Holly's campaigning, and I am delighted that it is still going strong. The number of knives handed in during 2011 was considerable, and I am pleased that people are still binning their blades in 2012.

"Whilst there continues to be no significant problem with knife crime in Suffolk, we still want to raise awareness of the consequences of carrying a knife. We are now focusing on delivering this message to young people through a theatre production in the new year."

So far in 2012, 1640 knives have been deposited in the bins. A number of the knives collected in 2011 have been kept and will be turned into an award which is being developed.

Bin a Blade currently features in an exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood.