Nottinghamshire Police has set up three permanent amnesty bins so that anyone wanting to safely throw a knife away can now do so all-year round without any questions being asked.

The bins have been set up inside three different police stations as part of further efforts to help take knives off the streets.

By offering people the chance to get rid of unwanted knives without the fear of being prosecuted, the force hope this will stop these weapons falling into the wrong hands.

Nearly 200 knives were destroyed after being left in amnesty bins across the county as part of two separate weeks of action to tackle knife crime over the last 12 months.

Following this success, the force has now moved to ensure the bins are a mainstay and are available for blades to be dropped off by the public at selected stations throughout the whole year.

Superintendent Kathryn Craner, Nottinghamshire Police's knife crime lead, said: "Sadly knife crime is an issue that continues to affect both our county and other areas, which is why we're constantly reviewing our offer to take knives off the streets.

"Having these amnesty bins available to the public all-year round is just one of the ways we're looking to do this, alongside the wider proactive work our two knife crime teams and other officers do each day to target these offenders.

"We saw lots of people come forward to hand over unwanted knives when we rolled this service out before and we're hoping to see similar results going forward now that we're making these bins a permanent offering.

"Recent changes to legislation under the Offensive Weapons Act made it illegal for people to even have certain weapons, like zombie knives, knuckledusters and throwing stars, in their homes, so this scheme offers a method for people to safely dispose of these items.

"Likewise, there will also still be lots of people who won't be fully aware of the danger they're putting themselves and others in just by carrying a knife.

"I'd like to remind these people that carrying a knife does the exact opposite of keeping them safe, and I'd urge them to visit one of our amnesty bins, where they can throw the knife away without any harm being done."

The permanent knife amnesty bins can now be found all-year round at Radford Road Police Station in Hyson Green, Mansfield Police Station, and Newark Police Station. Members of the public are asked to check the opening times at the stations before they visit.

Nottinghamshire Police previously rolled out the amnesty bins at stations and shared locations across the city and county for two separate weeks of action in November 2021 and May 2022.

This directly led to 188 weapons being taken off the streets.

The next week of action, known as Operation Sceptre, is due to take place from 14 November 2022 and will see a further increase in amnesty bins being made available across the county.

The biannual campaign focuses on the ongoing year-round work being carried out by the force to combat knife crime in Nottinghamshire and root out its causes.

Supt Craner added: "Any knife in the hands of anyone can result in lives being lost and other lives being ruined, which is why we carry out so much work to prevent this from happening.

"We're absolutely committed as a force to making Nottinghamshire a safe place for everyone to live and we hope the ongoing successes of projects like the amnesty bins helps us achieve this goal."

The latest official figures show that knife crime fell by seven per cent across Nottinghamshire, when comparing the year ending April 2022 with the same 12-month period ending in April 2020.