ENFIELD: MP urges Home Sec for action over knives
9:11am Tuesday 29th July 2008 in Local Politics
Edmonton MP Andy Love met Home Secretary Jaqui Smith last week in an urgent attempt to reduce the growing problem of knife crime in his constituency.
The urgent meeting was called following the deaths of six young people this year - all the victims of escalating knife crime in Edmonton.
At the meeting, Mr Love urged the Home Secretary to do all she could to help tackle the problem.
He also spoke to Ms Smith about his petition against knife crime, which has been signed by over 1,000 local residents and will be presented to Number 10 next month.
The Home Secretary promised to take on board the views of the people of Edmonton and continue to do all she can to try to find a solution to this problem.
On July 15 the Home Secretary announced the Youth Action Crime Plan - a raft of measures to get young people off the streets at night and provide more support for families to tackle offending.
The plan sets out a triple approach, focusing on enforcement, including Operation Staysafe to remove at-risk children and young people from the streets late at night, non-negotiable support. such as increasing Family Interven-tion Projects for those children at high risk of offending, and prevention, including the expansion of youth centres at times when young people are most likely to offend, such as on a Friday and Saturday nights.
The Youth Crime Action Plan aims to reduce the rate of young people entering the criminal Justice System for the first time by a fifth by 2020.
Following the sixth death - that of 18-year-old Melvin Bryan - earlier this month, Mr Love called for tougher knife-crime sentencing. He said that the softly-softly approach to tackling knife crime had clearly not worked.
Following the meeting, Mr Love said: "I told the Home Secretary of my support for her tough stance on knife crime - including proposals to ensure that anyone over 16 found with a knife will now be prosecuted rather than receive a caution, and the introduction of the Youth Crime Action Plan, which will help identify the causes of crime through early intervention and diverting young people away from offending.
"We both also agreed that this firm stance needs to be coupled with a firm commitment to investment in youth facilities and the local community."
