Following from the motion passed at the 2019 General Assembly from FOY Society about tackling knife crime in the UK, Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians held a discussion about what action we wanted to take. We’ve previously taken action on motions relating to nuclear arms control and the impact of austerity on women and girls, and decided to repeat our approach of writing letters to local political leaders.

We therefore fired off several missives to our local Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness, the North of Tyne Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, our local MP, Nick Brown MP, local councillors Clare Penny-Evans as chair of Safe Newcastle (the Newcastle upon Tyne community safety partnership) and John-Paul Stephenson (Newcastle City Council Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Public Health, and Linda Hobson, the Branch Secretary for the trade union UNISON Newcastle Hospitals Branch. Their replies included:

• “The mayor shares your views that knife crime should be dealt with as a public health issue rather than just as a policing matter, and that this requires a coordinated multi-agency” from the North of Tyne Mayor
• “The Police and Crime Commissioner completely agrees with your message and is passionate around reducing crime, and tackling knife crime …she has established a Violence Reduction Unit” from the Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner.
• “We in the Safe Newcastle partnership are adopting a Public Health approach to talking violent crime.” Cllr Clare Penny-Evans, Chair of Safe Newcastle Partnership.

We’ve shared these replies and the draft letter with PSAP (the Unitarian Penal and Social Affairs Panel), and we’re happy to share our letter template with any congregation or fellowship who would like to use it. Once we can meet again as an organisation, we look forward to taking action on more social issues – until then, we continue to support our local charity, the Joseph Cowen Centre for Homeless Men. What action have other congregations taken?