New bins allowing people to dispose of knives safely and confidentially are being installed around Tower Hamlets.
Four new knife amnesty bins have been put up in: Barnet Grove, north of the Bethnal Green Road junction; Vallance Road opposite Underwood Road; Burslem Street between the recycling bins; and Brownfield Street next to number 107.
There is also an amnesty bin in St Mary’s and St Michael Church in Lukin Street, taking the total number of bins across the borough to five.
The knife amnesty bins, installed by charity Words4Weapons, aim to take knives off the streets safely. The knives are destroyed and are not investigated by the police, even if they have been used in a crime.
Cllr Ohid Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, said:
“In London we’re sadly all too aware of the evil that knife crime brings. It causes death, it devastates the lives of bereaved families, it leaves survivors with permanent and life-changing injuries and it leaves whole communities feeling scared and unsafe in the place they call home.
“Some of our residents may, for whatever reason, have a knife or sharp weapon and want to get rid of it in a safe, secure way with a guarantee it cannot be used to hurt anyone, and our knife amnesty bins do exactly that.
“A knife taken out of circulation is a knife that cannot be used in a crime, saving lives, sparing grieving families, preventing life-changing injuries and helping us all to feel more safe on our streets.”
If you want to dispose of a knife or other sharp weapon, please wrap it in several layers of cardboard or newspaper and secure it with plenty of sticky tape so that the blade is completely protected and the knife cannot easily be removed, before placing it in a secure cardboard box.
It’s an offence to have a knife in a public place and there aren’t many reasonable excuses for having one. If you are depositing a knife in one of the amnesty bins, please make sure that it is safely wrapped.
If you are worried about the safety of a child or young person, you can see the council and national help available here.
Posted on Tuesday 21st February 2023