Royal visit in Wellingborough as Princess Anne listens to concerns from knife crime activists

Wellingborough was visited by a member of the Royal family on Friday to talk to volunteers about the town’s issues with knife crime.

Princess Anne met with representatives of Off the Streets NN, a local organisation that heightens awareness and tackles the issue of knife crime in the community head-on.

Ravaun Jones, Off the Streets’ co-founder, was in attendance on the day, as well as others from the organisation, showing the Royal how their bleed kits work and speaking about the difference they make.

He said: “The Royal visit is good for our community and creates great exposure for our organisation Off the Streets NN on combatting knife crime throughout Northamptonshire.

"We are honoured to have had Princess Anne visit us and listen to our youths about how knife crime affects our community. Personally, I was over the moon to have had the honour to be Her Royal Highness’ guide for the event.”

Princess Anne spent some of the time learning about how the issue of knife crime has affected young people in the area, and presented certificates to those who have supported Off the Streets and undertaken critical bleed control training courses.

Ravaun added: "Princess Anne praised our amazing work that we have been carrying out across Northamptonshire and showed a lot of interest in the amnesty bins and critical bleed control cabinets, which are used for disposal of sharp objects and reducing/stopping blood loss.

"She was also amazed by our overlay map showing all locations of our kits across Northamptonshire.”

Off the Streets was set up following the death of 16 year-old Dylan Holliday in Wellingborough. In the time since, the charity has handed out 203 bleed kits across Northamptonshire to local services and businesses and set up 13 amnesty bins across the county, which have safely and discreetly taken more than 3,000 knives out of circulation.

Off the Streets has also trained 608 community members in critical bleed control, many of which have no previous medical background, to stop a critical bleed in the case of emergency, both using the kits that have been made available locally, and improvising if none are readily available.