Almost 600 knives recovered across Lancaster, Morecambe and Blackpool during police operation

Officers from West Division, which covers the areas of Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre, Lancaster and Morecambe, carried out a range of both operational and proactive engagement work throughout the week.

The seven knife surrender bins across West Division - including one in each of Lancaster and Morecambe - were emptied, in which 572 knives were recovered. Weapons included machetes, cleavers and a kukri.

Officers also conducted three search warrants and a number of stop searches throughout the week – some of which were at Lancaster Railway Station during a multi-agency initiative with British Transport Police, whereby a knife arch was put up to combat criminals using rail services, those carrying knives and other vulnerabilities.

Seven weapon sweeps were carried out across the division, with some help from Blackpool Sixth Form College. Test purchases were also conducted at 19 retailers.

Proactive engagement involved community meetings, school talks (at both primary and high schools) and leaflet drops.

Sgt Dan Whitaker from Lancashire’s Violence Reduction Network said: “This is a huge result for West Division and the public have really engaged with this operation.

“It is so important to us to reach as many people as possible through operations like this. Operation Sceptre holds an important message and we will continue the work to make West Division a safe place to be.”

In total, more than 1,300 knives were recovered in Lancashire as a whole.