'We need fewer fancy buildings and more youth clubs to stop knife crime in Milton Keynes' says parish councillor

A parish councillor is calling for fewer “fancy buildings” and more youth clubs to be built in MK in a bid to curb the city’s wave of knife crime.

Dr Shery Delfani, who is a member of West Bletchley Parish Council, has spoken out after the city has seen four serious stabbings in just 16 days.

The stabbings all happened despite December’s citywide month of action against violent crime, during which MK played host to the famous Knife Angel statue.

Dr Delfani said: “We need to tackle the root of this issue deeply. Knife crime has become a national issue now and sadly it’s soaring in MK too.

“It’s absolutely not just a policing issue, it involves everybody - schools, communities, hospital, prisons, local authorities, politicians, and families. A key part of tackling the issue is to educate young people, who often carry with them the myths about the safety of violence.”

She believes youth clubs could be the answer and is calling for increased funding for them to be provided, adding: "Nowadays, unfortunately, there aren’t many youth clubs for people to go to. If there were more a lot of young people wouldn’t be on the streets and getting up to things, they shouldn’t be.”

Dr Delfani has asked a direct question to government, saying: “Do you see all of those fancy, luxury buildings that are popping up left, right and centre in every city? The money and space spent on those, one percent of that can go towards building more youth clubs.”

She is urging politicians to take on a “public health approach” to violence, treating it like a disease and dealing with the causes rather than the symptoms.

“The youth are the blossom of our communities and the future depends on how we transform them,” she said.

In April last year, local Conservative councillors pledged to provide six new modern youth centres in the borough – but only if they got elected to run the council in following month’s elections.

Though Conservatives ended up with the most seats, they did not get enough to oust the current Labour and Lib Dem coalition from continuing to run the council.