LCC Broadcast News Room

A Church in South London is using a novel method to help tackle knife crime.

St John the Evangelist Church in Brixton has set up a bin where people can drop off their weapons and in return receive a 'word pack' containing stationary, crimestoppers information and a Bible.

The bin has been installed under the Christian initiative Word 4 Weapons (W4W) which is aimed at encouraging young people to give up their knives and guns.

Michael Smith from W4W says something needed to be done to help tackle violent crime in that area:

"Just right near to that church, prior to us putting that bin in the vicar told us that a young man had been stabbed out there.

She had serious concerns about the level of weapons and they're right in the vicinity of a couple of schools" 

The Brixton knife bin follows similar schemes in Islington, at the All Saints Church at Caledonian Road, Carnegie Street and one at St Mark's Church, Tollington Park.

These pilot schemes proved very successful with 160 weapons collected within 6 months.  The weapons handed in included kitchen knives, swords and meat cleavers.

The secure bins will be emptied every few months by the police.

Mr Smith hopes to have a minimum of 2 of these bins in every borough in London by the end of 2011 and to eventually go internationally:

"I think knife crime is an issue in many many countries around the world, it's certainly an issue within the uk. 

So if we can have these bins on the streets, the police deal with emptying that, then we can help tackle the problem".

(To hear this interview in full please click on the link on the right of this page)

The weapons will be melted down and turned into medals which can be awarded to people who have managed to turn their lives around.

For more information on this you can call the Word 4 Weapons helpline on 07931 955 500

Do you think these bins will help tackle knife crime?  Let us know your thoughts