Knife Surrender Bin Placed Outside Harold Hill Leisure Centre.

A permanent knife surrender bin will remain in Central Park Leisure Centre car park, Harold Hill, to allow people to anonymously and safely dispose of knives and other weapons.

Havering Council is supporting the initiative through its community safety and enforcement teams.

Councillor Barry Mugglestone, Cabinet Member for Community Safety, joined the Council’s community safety team at the bin this week, along with Sue Hedges, anti-knife campaigner from the Ricky Hayden Memorial and Danny Mitchell, Operations Manager at Everyone Active, which manages the borough’s leisure centres for the Council.

It follows a mobile weapons surrender van making a stop in Romford, last month (July) where knives were also dropped in anonymously and safely.

The mobile van was located in Arcade Place for one day and was operated by FazAmnesty as part of the Home Office Knife Surrender Scheme.

Trained staff were with the van to take the knives, offering a non-judgemental, ‘no questions asked’ service, without the need to visit a police station.

FazAmenesty took the van across the country to help hit home the message of not carrying knives and raising awareness of the consequences, both for offenders and victims of the crime.

The permanent knife surrender bin in Harold Hill, provided by Word4Weapons, is located next to the clothes bin in the park car park.

Remember:

• Wrap your weapon in newspaper, bubble wrap, or cloth, then place it in a sturdy bag or box that’s completely sealed.
• Don’t label the package and just go directly to the surrender location without making stops.
• Carrying weapons openly is illegal, but going directly to surrender gives you a “good reason” for possession if stopped by police.

These initiatives follow the government putting into place a nationwide ban on ninja swords, which came into effect from 1 August. It means that it is now illegal to possess, manufacture, import or sell these deadly weapons.

Anyone caught in possession of a ninja sword could face six months in prison, and this will later increase to two years under new measures in the Crime and Policing Bill.

Councillor Barry Mugglestone, Havering’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety, said:

“These initiatives will hopefully help towards reducing knife crime and remove these dangerous weapons from our streets.

“We are committed to making our borough as safe as possible for all our residents and visitors and encourage anyone in possession of any weapons to do the right thing and surrender them.”

The Council’s community safety and enforcement teams continue to work closely with the police and partners as part of the Havering Community Safety Partnership to tackle serious violence, including knife crime.

Safety is also part of the Council’s Where We Live campaign, looking at and highlighting safety and environmental initiatives and tackling issues of anti-social behaviour and crime.

L-R Anisah Rahman, Havering Council Community Safety Team, Danny Mitchell, Everyone Active Operation’s Manager, Councillor Barry Mugglestone, Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Sue Hedges from the Ricky Hayden Memorial.

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