Enfield Council is hosting a public meeting to discuss ways of tackling an increase in youth violence in the borough.
The event will take place at Community House in Fore Street, Edmonton, at 10am on 28 July and feature speeches from politicians, youth workers, police officers and members of the public as well as group discussions about what should be done to tackle the issue.
Latest figures showed a 17 per cent increase in youth violence in the borough for the 12 months to May 2018, and there are fears that as the school holidays start that figure may rise further, prompting Enfield Council to unveil this week a £100,000 package of measures designed to help calm tensions among young people.
The newly elected Leader of Enfield Council, Cllr Nesil Caliskan, has already made tackling youth violence one of her main priorities
She said: “Violence against young people is a problem for everyone and the whole community needs to stand together and play a part in tackling it. We share our residents’ concerns that youth crime and knife crime are increasing in Enfield and we are doing everything we can with our partners in the police to tackle those problems.
“This meeting will help residents help us to come up with solutions to youth crime and tell us of their experiences and how we can help."
Cllr Nneka Keazor, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Cohesion added, “Our police do a fantastic job in extremely difficult circumstances. The problem is there are not enough of them to go around and we think the government should give the police the resources they need.
“Enfield Council is putting its money where its mouth is. We run a range of youth engagement activities, manage hundreds of CCTV cameras and fund police officers but our efforts are severely hampered by funding cuts.