INCIDENTS of knife seizures by police in Cumbria have risen according to the county's police fire and crime commissioner.

David Allen was speaking to members of the police fire and crime panel during a meeting at the Civic Centre in Carlisle on Thursday (July 26).

He said that the reason for the rise was police use of stop and search which had also led to a rise in seizures of drugs and other weapons. He added: "Which is a good thing."

Regarding his plan to get knives off the street his report states: "The constabulary is currently undertaking a full analysis of knife incidents across the county to identify the areas of need. I will work with the chief constable to shape how we respond to this."

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He was asked by councillor Mike Johnson (Thursby, Conservative), himself the former deputy police fire and crime commissioner, about the extra funding promised by the new Labour government for more officers and if he knew how many Cumbria would get and by when?

Cumbria PFCC David Allen Cumbria PFCC David Allen (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Allen said it represented a total of 13,000, including 10,000 new posts, across the UK and included both frontline officers as well as other staff members. He added: "What that will mean for Cumbria I don't know."

But he said that when the figure was divided by the number of Parliamentary constituencies it represented between 50 and 70 posts per constituency.

Cllr Johnson asked about extra funding for the fire and rescue service and Mr Allen said: "They've been mostly silent on it. We haven't had a response yet."

Mr Allen said that the Labour pledge to take back control of our streets meant that it was hoped to halve incidents of serious violent crime.

According to his report funding to support the serious violence duty would go through his office which was working with responsible authorities, both police and fire, to tackle serious violence identified across the county.

The report states: "The strategic needs assessment is updated annually to ensure we are meeting emerging trends and themes.

"Through my internal governance and accountability processes I am holding the chief constable and chief fire officer to account for their delivery of this duty.

"It is through the Safer Cumbria Partnership, that I chair, that wider compliance with the duty is evidence."