Knife bins to be rolled out across county

Additional knife bins are to be installed in more towns and cities across North Yorkshire from January.

More than 1,600 bladed items were disposed of in a trial bin since it was installed in Harrogate in January 2023.

Although knife crime is lower in York and North Yorkshire than across England, North Yorkshire Council said the success of the trial scheme had led other areas to request a similar bin.

After securing £15,000 in funding from the York and North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning, part of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, 20 further bins will be installed in the new year.

York and North Yorkshire's deputy mayor for police, fire and crime, Jo Coles, said the project was a good example of "proactive effort to create safer communities".

“Knife crime is a national problem, and amnesties like this help to get dangerous weapons off the streets without putting police officers in danger," she said.

The first knife bin was installed in the Dragon Road car park in Harrogate and has since seen more than 1,630 knives and bladed articles dropped into it, which are collected by North Yorkshire Police and then disposed of.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), crimes linked to knives recorded by police in England and Wales in the year ending June 2024 increased by 4% to 50,973 offences compared with 49,187 in the previous year.

In North Yorkshire, the figures are two-and-a-half times lower (35 per 100,000 people ) than the national average (87 per 100,000 people).

North Yorkshire councillor Heather Phillips, whose responsibilities include community safety, said she wanted the county to continue to be "the safest place in England".

Phillips said the success of the Harrogate scheme had led people in other parts of the area to ask for them.

"The roll-out across the county is a proactive measure to ensure such items do not get into the wrong hands.”

In partnership with City of York Council and North Yorkshire Police, the bins will be located in Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Northallerton, Stokesley, Thirsk, Tadcaster, Selby, Malton, Pickering, Scarborough, Whitby, Eastfield, Colburn, Richmond, Skipton and York.

The bins are securely bolted into the ground, padlocked and only accessible to police.

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