Crossbow amongst more than 50 weapons surrendered under initiative at Brierley Hill gym

More than 50 knives, two knuckle-dusters and the crossbow which contained a number of bolts were taken off the streets when the bin was emptied on Monday at Team Pumpkin gym in Old Bush Street.

The gym began two years ago and was set up by Carl Collins and son Ben, who is a professional boxer and signed with Frank Warren – between them they have more than 120 youngsters on their books. It features 12 trained coaches and many volunteers.

The weapons have been taken away by a private company and will be disposed of while the empty bin will be waiting to be filled up once more.

Former Stourbridge MP Suzanne Webb has endorsed the knife bin, which was first set up outside the gym in 2024 – she has been a passionate campaigner against knife crime .

She has visited the gym a number of times as part of a knife crime summit along with  Ade Passey, father of knife crime victim Ryan, and Jason Connon, who runs the Justice for Ryan campaign. 

She said: “It is great to see the good work continuing and that the initiative which Carl and his team at the gym have supported so much has been so successful and continues to be.”

Carl said: “We are just a local amateur club under the banner of England Boxing and we heard last year there was a stigma about these bins with youngsters reluctant to surrender weapons in some cases.

“When we were approached ourselves we said if it gets one knife off the street it is worth it. Not for a minute did we realise how many weapons would be surrendered into the bin.

“We have three people who train at the gym who have been mugged at knifepoint and two who openly admitted carrying knives when they came here plus a number of boxers who have been referred by police.

“Parts of Brierley Hill are amongst the most deprived in the country, and there have been a number of incidents of knife crime in the last year, though that is by no means unique to this area.

“We have always aimed to offer children a safe environment and the chance to benefit from the positives of the physical and mental side of exercise as well as helping to make the area a safer and better place to live.

“The weapons amnesty is part of that and hopefully other boxing gyms from around the country can take it on board in the coming months because it has certainly been a success here as we can see by the number of items given up.”