Council gets tough on knife crime but says penalties are too soft

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Enfield councillors hit out at ministers' "soft stance" on knife crime, claiming it was costing lives.

Councillor Terry Neville said: "Possession of knives should carry a custodial sentence. Community punishment, which of course is the Government's favoured solution after having failed to provide adequate prison places, has not worked and is costing young Londoners their lives."

He was speaking after the council conducted one of its regular covert test-purchase operations on illegal knife sales to under-18s.

With the help of a specially trained teenager, the team visited nine shops but no sales were made. The council aims to increase the number of such checks.

Mr Neville said councils could not tackle knife crime alone. Last week a 24-year-old father, Bakari Davis, was stabbed to death by three men in Edmonton. He was the fifth person to be killed in the area this year.