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Murder victim's mum welcomes knife bins roll-out

Jack Hadaway-Weller,Yorkshireand
Ellie Colton,Yorkshire
News imageFamily Handout A picture of teenage boy wearing a black T-shirt. He is posing in front of a fence.Family Handout
Harvey Willgoose was stabbed to death by another pupil at his school in February 2025

Eight new knife surrender bins are being installed across towns and cities in South and West Yorkshire as part of a government drive to take weapons off the streets.

The new bins, funded by the Home Office, will be located in Barnsley, Dewsbury, Doncaster, Halifax, Leeds, Rotherham, Sheffield and Wakefield and allow people to dispose of knives anonymously.

The move was welcomed by Caroline Willgoose, whose 15-year-old son Harvey was stabbed to death at a school in Sheffield in February 2025.

Now a campaigner for action to protect young people from knife crime, she said: "With the new surrender bins being installed in Yorkshire, this is just a further step on the road to a positive future."

She added: "I feel like that's leaving a legacy for our Harvey, he's being talked about and they're taking it seriously now."

Harvey died after he was stabbed through the heart with a hunting knife by another pupil, who was also 15, at All Saints Catholic High School in Sheffield.

"The ripple effect of how many people this has devastated, losing Harvey, all of Sheffield I feel was in mourning and still are," said Caroline.

"It's horrific what happened and it cannot happen again."

Caroline Willgoose: Stopping Yorkshire knife crime

The bins will be located at:

  • South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (SYFRS) Fire Station, Broadway, Barnsley
  • SYFRS Fire Station, Leicester Avenue, Doncaster
  • SYFRS Fire Station, Fitzwilliam Road, Eastwood, Rotherham,
  • SYFRS Fire Station, Lowedges Road, Sheffield
  • Wade Street, Halifax,
  • Dewsbury Town Hall
  • John Charles Centre for Sport, Leeds,
  • Eastmoor Bus Terminus, Windhill Road, Eastmoor, Wakefield
News imageA mix of knives inside a big plastic box.
All kinds of knives can be disposed of in the bins

The Home Office said the new bins, managed by the charity Word 4 Weapons, were part of wider efforts to prevent weapons ending up on the streets and to halve knife crime over the next decade.

Similar schemes are running in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and London.

The Home Office said more than 14,500 weapons had been dropped off in government-backed amnesty bins since July 2025.

Policing and crime minister Sarah Jones said: "Every dangerous weapon that has been surrendered so far is a weapon off our streets and a community made that little bit safer.

"Knife crime is down by 11% since the general election but we will not stop until we meet our commitment of halving knife crime in a decade."

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