Concerns raised after Bournemouth town centre stabbing

A man was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries to his abdomen on Saturday evening, shortly after 8pm when lots of people were in the area.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats, the largest party within BCP Council, Vikki Slade, said “we need to get a grip on this” ahead of the busy summer season.

“We need to get it that by the time we hit the summer season, when we’ve got lots of tourists here, that people feel safe,” she said.

“If people don’t feel safe, they won’t come.

“We’re seeing too many of these awful incidents. The suggestion that crime is getting better is not borne out by everything we’re seeing.”

She said she would like to know more information about the circumstances around the stabbing.

“Clearly anyone being stabbed is horrific, but if it was part of an incident between people that knew each other, that offers some public reassurance,” she said.

Cllr Slade added: “My worry is we can feed a narrative without knowing whether it is a risk to the public, or whether there is better management of certain groups of people and better management of licences of places where people of a certain type might be frequenting.

“[I’m] worried, but I think we need to look at how we respond to it and that we don’t inflate that it’s a dangerous town.

“It isn’t necessarily a dangerous town but there may be a few dangerous people.”

Ringwood resident Shannon was walking down to go fishing at Bournemouth Pier on Saturday night when the stabbing happened.

“We were just walking with our fishing rods and there was a group of people and a lot of shouting. A lot of shouting, enough to put you off walking past,” she said.

“There was just a physical altercation, then some shouts of ‘he’s been stabbed’ or ‘he’s got a knife’ or something like that.

“Police were on the scene extremely quickly.”

She said the incident was “unfortunately not a surprise” and she worries about taking her children to the town centre and the arcades.

“It seems to be every time we go up there, it’s just not a relaxed atmosphere at all,” Shannon said.

“I just fear as the weather gets better and people are out more, it’s going to get worse.

“I definitely would not take my children there on a Friday or Saturday. Even my son being nine feels on edge, he feels the atmosphere, the shouting. It’s not the same as it was.

“It doesn’t feel safe at all.”