Doing my bit to stop knife crime was tough

I WRITE on a day when it is reported that a 14-year-old boy has been attacked with a knife in our county town of Preston, and barely a week after a boy and a girl were similarly attacked and killed, the boy in a nearby town to this great city.

So, I resolved to do my bit, and went through my kitchen drawers, selecting knives which hadn’t been used for a while.

I found three, two of which were really fearsome. What to do with them, I thought? I know, it’ll take them to my nearest police station at Ashton, after all it’s the main police station for the Tameside Division of GMP.

So, at nearly 82-years-of age, I found a sign at the bottom of Katherine Street, pointing the way to the police station. On William Street there was another sign, this time confirming that the public entrance was on that very street – it wasn’t – and I eventually found my way, still on foot, to the public entrance on Manchester Road, almost at Chester Square.

I rang the bell and a lady came. Feeling self-righteous, I asked where the knife amnesty was. ‘We don’t have one, but we have a box,’ I was surprisingly informed.

Now, I would have supposed that firstly, the main police station was correctly signed, and easier to find, and secondly, in the current climate, the handing in of knives was easier. Who knows, could I have been prosecuted for carrying knives in public? (I was carrying them in a rucksack and would have preferred to be expected, but 101 never gets answered).

Still, I would suppose that the penalising of motorists for trivial offences is easier than saving young lives.

Keith Sales, Ashton under Lyne

Terry Moores, of Gorton, took this picture of the sun rising over Neuman and Ashton Flash in Cheshire. If you have a stunning picture, then we’d love to see it. Send your photos to us at viewpoints@men-news. co.uk, marking them Picture of the Day