Colchester: Councillor Richard Kirby-Taylor on knife crime

More than 1,400 young people throughout the county took park in the 2024 Listening Project which looks at youngsters’ concerns around youth violence.

The project was led by Essex Council of Voluntary Youth Services, and Essex Police’s violence and vulnerability unit.

The data was gathered by completing face-to-face conversations between young people and trusted leaders in youth groups, sports groups, schools, and more.

Speaking up - Green leader Richard Kirkby-Taylor (Image: Newsquest)

Castle Ward councillor and parent, Councillor Richard Kirkby-Taylor, has shared his reaction to the findings.

He said: “It doesn’t surprise me at all, I have a teenage child, when I was speaking to them, they said that there was more info in the rumour mill, they knew more about city centre stabbings than I do.

“It is a systematic underinvestment in our communities, and it is a massive problem that needs addressing.”

According to the councillor, when he was growing up in Southeast London, knife crime was a problem, and the police had a massive crackdown and “people who carried knives were treated with zero tolerance”.

Concerning - an illustrative image of someone with a knife

Now, Mr Kirkby-Taylor believes that elements like increased policing and “punitive measures for perpetrators” are not as effective as tackling the issues that result in knife crime and antisocial behaviour in the first place.

He said: "An underlying problem we have had is an underinvestment in youth services.

“We know social workers, youth centres, and family support services are an order of magnitude more effect to prevent this kind of threat and problem, rather than throwing police officers.

“We are pushing the new government to fix the underlying cause of the problem; the underlining social cohesion has been fundamentally damaged.

“There is a significant amount of work to be done to eliminate these issues in the community at the source.

“It won’t go away without tackling the route of the problem.”

Fellow ward councillor Mark Goacher believes knife crime is still a rarity in the city. 

He said: “It does surprise me a little bit, it’s nowhere near as common as it might be perceived, it is still a rarity, when it happens it frightens people.

"It is not happening all the time, nonetheless I understand the worries.

“We need to do all we can do to reduce the threat of it. It was great when the Knife Angel came to Colchester.

“We absolutely need to work together with police and authorities to tackle it.”

You can read the full report at tinyurl.com/nwh6dw4p.