Kate Griffiths, Member of Parliament for Burton and Uttoxeter, has today (Friday 22nd April) hosted a roundtable, bringing together community leaders, with the key objective of tackling knife crime and addressing the underlying causes that may lead to someone choosing to carry a knife.
At the start of this year Ms Griffiths made clear her determination to tackle this issue following a spate of knife crimes on the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border which tragically took the lives of several young people. Since then, the local MP has raised the matter with the Prime Minister and hosted the Home Secretary on a visit to Burton.
Today’s roundtable event was an opportunity to build on previous meetings with community leaders to work together more closely and to ensure efforts were co-ordinated to achieve the multi-agency solution to the local incidents of knife crime. Organisations which took part included, Staffordshire Police; Staffordshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Ben Adams; Staffordshire County Council; East Staffordshire Borough Council; the Street Whyze Project; Sporting Communities; Burton Albion Community Trust; local secondary schools and many others.
The participates had detailed discussions around early intervention measures, additional knife bins in the town and new projects and places for young people to visit. The Police also highlighted how they were working with the community to identify possible hotspot areas and visiting schools to educate young people on the dangers of carrying a knife.
Commenting, Kate Griffiths MP said:
“There is no silver bullet or single solution to tackling knife crime. There are many reasons which may lead someone to carrying a knife which is why a more holistic approach is required. By bringing together the police, the state and civil society, we have today made progress on achieving a multi-agency solution to tackling knife crime and the causes of knife crime.
“I want to thank all those individuals and the organisations they represent who took part in today’s discussions but also for the work they continue to do, day in day out, to support and care for our community.”
