A proposal has been lodged by The City of Edinburgh Council with their planners to erect the knife angel sculpture at the foot of Leith Walk on a temporary basis.
This site is regarded as appropriate on the basis that there is a great deal of footfall and it is in an area where there have been crimes involving knives.
The document which accompanies the planning application explains that Leith is an area “holding onto a rich and proud social heritage with areas of deprivation and fewer young people engaging in training, education or employment than the city average. Leith is also witnessing social change via vast high density housing developments and regeneration, needing cohesion for the community to flourish”.
The proposed site
Kirkgate Shopping Centre Leith Walk, Edinburgh
The applicants also say that in Summer 2026 Edinburgh will host a youth summit under the banner of ‘Empowering Change’ with a “focus on engaging young people in the violence prevention conversation. There would be an opportunity to link this event to the presence of the knife angel and generate support an interest in both projects with a shared comms strategy. Consideration could be given to hosting workshops during the summit specifically relating to the knife angel”.
Funding has been secured from local housing providers, local businesses and Police Scotland.
The proposal also provides that there would be an opening ceremony enlisting councillors and other political figures to be present to support the launch. A number have already signified their support.
- Community and Partnership Police Officers would arrange drop ins and events/stalls around the Knife Angel alongside partners
- There will be letter drops/posters in the local area highlighting key messages surrounding knife related issues
- Creating a community events surrounding the knife angel with partner stalls highlighting diversionary activities for young people in the area
- Utilise sports activities/ events such as Friday Night Lights Football, other groups and partner agencies which work with the local community to focus on raising awareness of Knife Crime within the communities to affect change
- There will be links with third sector local youth diversion partners LAYC, Council lead services and other partner agencies putting on events throughout Leith as well as the rest of the city of Edinburgh.
The council also says that it would aim to create a closing ceremony similar to the event held in Perth when the knife angel resided there, it will potentially encompass a book of remembrance highlighting the knife angels time in Edinburgh.
Almost 50 knife crimes recorded in Edinburgh schools
Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh Northern, Sanne Dijkstra-Downie MSP, has today urged the SNP government to step up efforts to tackle youth knife crime as she revealed that there have been almost 50 such crimes in Edinburgh schools since 2021.
New figures uncovered by the party show that since 2021 there have been: 37 crimes of possession of an article with a blade or point in Edinburgh schools.
- 10 crimes of these articles being used in some other kind of criminal activity in Edinburgh schools.
Scottish Liberal Democrats previously revealed that the police have recorded almost 700 crimes of possessing an article with a blade or point in schools across Scotland over the last five years.
Sanne Dijkstra-Downie MSP said: “Each one of these crimes will have been hugely distressing for the staff and pupils involved.
“These figures do not sit in isolation, and we need to understand the part played by events like the pandemic, which had a severe and longer-lasting impact on young people.
“That impact hasn’t been helped by the Scottish Government’s failure to recognise the importance of interventions like youth work.
“Youth work can stop this kind of violence from happening in the first place by offering young people valuable support and guidance, often from someone who is neither a parent nor a teacher.
“Scottish Liberal Democrats will fight for a proper investment in youth work so that we can give young people the choices and the futures they deserve.”
