THE British Ironwork Centre has been presented an award by the regional police force.

West Mercia police has presented a special recognition award to chairman of the centre Clive Knowles to recognise the help and support provided over the years.

The award not only celebrates the support given to West Mercia Police, but it also recognises the impact that the Ironworks’ initiatives have had in increasing awareness surrounding knife related violence and developing safer communities across the UK.

Over the past five years, the Ironwork Centre has supported the force through various campaigns and amnesties, including the ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife’ campaign whereby knife bins were created and distributed, free of charge, across police constabularies all over the UK.

It has also recently undertaken the responsibility to create a special memorial monument to recognise UK police dogs.

The memorial will be created from apprehended knives and decommissioned guns as well as objects that relate to dogs.

Once completed, the memorial is set to be positioned outside the West Mercia Police Headquarters in Worcestershire, where it will honour and celebrate the lives of every police service dog in the UK, and beyond.

Clive spoke after receiving the award. He said: “It’s amazing to receive this award.

“We’re thrilled and we’ll continue to support the police in whatever way we can.

“It’s something we’re really proud of here – I’d like to thank the team here because without them none of this would be possible.”

With the centre’s famous Knife Angel sculpture currently still on a tour of the UK, Clive hopes it can continue having an impact across the country, and said it could possibly make an appearance closer to its original home sometime soon.

He added: “We’re talking to Birmingham at the moment, and Wrexham have actually stepped forward and said they would like to host the Knife Angel at their cathedral.

“At the moment as you know it’s in Hull and then it’ll be going to Coventry on March 4, then it’ll be heading somewhere like Gloucester, Cleveland or Nottingham, so there are a lot of options for its next location.”

West Mercia Deputy Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman agreed with Clive, she said: “We’re really lucky in terms of knife crime because it’s not really as big around here.

“There are other areas really suffering with it – but it is still important to get the message across here to people who may feel the need to carry knives for whatever reason.

“The work that Clive and the team have done here with the Ironwork Centre in terms of getting that message across in a really impactive way is beneficial to policing across the country and not just in West Mercia.

“We work very closely with the West Midlands region. It would be great to see it come home and to get that message out back around here again.

“Like I said it’s an important message to get out, especially to young people, around not carrying knives.”