Knife crime is “shaped by the environment people live in” a councillor has argued calling for more resources for poorer areas.

City councillor for Barton, Jabu Nala-Hartley’s son was involved in a knife bar brawl knife last summer.

Since then, a stabbing in Barton on Edgecombe Road on February 29 was one of three in three weeks in the city.

Ms Nala-Hartley has called for more resources in poorer areas to improve housing, education provision and opportunities for young people, which she believes is a main contribution to knife crime.

She said: “When I speak to young people the first thing they say is they have nothing to do.

“It’s the violence of austerity.

“A lot of youth clubs have been shut down, so a lot of young people don’t have anything to do. They are just loitering about.”

The councillor added that once people reach the age of 18 there is a lack of organised activities for young adults.

Speaking about her son, she admitted it was a “shock” as she worried for his life.

Ms Nala-Hartley said: “It is very hard because when people get stabbed there is a likelihood that death can occur.

“It is really hard to take as a mum. Whatever your child is involved in, it is something that shocks you.

“I feel for the mums that have lost their children because you can't bring those people back.”

Her son was stabbed in an altercation in the early hours of July 30 at a bar on Cowley Road where he was seen brandishing a baseball bat.

For his part in the altercation he was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work, the Probation Service’s thinking skills course and up to 40 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

She said: “I come from an angle of perpetrators and victims because it is very important to have that element in this conversation

“Because you can’t irradicate anything without considering what the root causes are.

She believes that increased policing in the areas where knife crime regularly happens is like “putting a plaster on a bullet wound”.

Ms Nala-Hartley said: “There is a tendency for people who don’t live in the area to think the solution is to put more police.

“I think that is just putting a plaster on a bullet wound. If you want to solve a problem you deal with the root causes.

“You need to look at the conditions of where these people who are participating in this type of behaviour, where are they coming from.

“You can't just judge them as certain individuals, every individual is shaped by their environment.”