‘Knife crime is not solely a policing issue, but a community issue’

• THE biggest crisis facing our young people is knife violence.

They are scared on the way home from school, scared to visit grand-parents a few streets away, scared to just go around the corner to the shops.

According to former mayor of Islington, Rakhia Ismail, Labour “were not interested”, and they “failed to take action against knife crime” which has “risen 34 per cent” under Labour.

Knife crime is not solely a policing issue, but a community issue. It needs all of the community working together to stamp it out. Violence is preventable not inevitable.

Where are our youth centres? There are too few places for our young people to go to be mentored and supported.

Too few places for our young people to be inspired, to be taught life skills and trades.

Where are the free youth gyms and boxing areas where they can work out their aggression on a kick-bag, not each other?

The Islington youth services budget keeps going down – between 2012 and 2017 it was cut by over £1million. I will have our bigger local businesses fund our youth centres and youth gyms / boxing centres, right across the whole ward.

I’ll then have our tech, construction, and finance companies come in, from all over the borough, and help teach our young people new skills, inspire them, mentor them, coach, and lead them.

We all have someone from our early lives who inspired us. Today’s young people need that as well.

I’ll also work with our medical teams and our youth workers, to go into schools and share their experiences to educate our young people about the dangers of knives.

I am a candidate to be Holloway councillor on May 6 not because I wanted to get into politics or use this as a stepping stone in a “political career” but because I can no longer stand by and read about our young people being killed.

I live in Holloway, this is my home. I mentor young people, I hear their fear all the time.

I can’t promise to save every life, but If I can save one then I will have accomplished something and we will have built the foundation to save many more. #saveonelife.

ANDREW HYETT
Liberal Democrat Candidate
Holloway ward by-election

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