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Nov 2024
Knife bins to be installed in Ripon, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge
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Knife bins are to be installed in Ripon, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge as part of a countywide initiative to reduce crime.
North Yorkshire’s first knife bin was put in the Dragon Road car park near Asda in Harrogate in January last year.
More than 1,630 knives and bladed articles that have been dropped into it have been disposed of by North Yorkshire Police.
Now bins will be put in another 17 locations across the county in January, following a £15,000 grant.
They will be sited in Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Northallerton, Stokesley, Thirsk, Tadcaster, Selby, Malton, Pickering, Scarborough, Whitby, Eastfield, Colburn, Richmond, Skipton and York.
The precise locations have yet to be revealed.
The knife bin near Asda car park in Harrogate.
According to the Office for National Statistics, knife crime in England and Wales increased by four per cent to 50,973 offences in the year ending June 2024. Robberies involving a knife or sharp instrument were up by 11 per cent.
In North Yorkshire, the figures are two-and-a-half times lower than the national average.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for corporate services, Cllr Heather Phillips, whose responsibilities include community safety, said:
We want North Yorkshire to continue to be the safest place in England. But we have to accept that knife crime poses a serious threat to our communities.
Following our knife bin pilot in Harrogate, people in other parts of the county have asked if they too can have them and while we may not have the number of incidents experienced in some larger cities, we need to do all we can to help prevent such tragic occurrences.
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The grant was awarded by the York and North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning, which is part of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, through its North Yorkshire and York Serious Violence Duty Prevention and Early Intervention Fund.
Jo Coles, Labour’s deputy mayor for York and North Yorkshire, said “amnesties like this help to get dangerous weapons off the streets without putting police officers in danger.” North Yorkshire Police’s detective chief inspector Jon Sygrove said “every blade that is taken out of circulation is one less item that can end up in the wrong hands”.
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