It wasn't the usual topic of conversation.

That's normally the things kids do, or the price of the weekly shop.

Today, though, the two women on the bus heading for the town centre were talking about knives.

They had heard about the robbery at a pub in Colchester, where the landlord's face had been slashed with a knife, and it worried them.

"It's going to be like London soon," said one. "All those people stabbed - and now it's coming here."

The point is, it isn't.

Since January, there have been 22 incidents in the Colchester area where knives played some part. This doesn't mean 22 knife attacks. It means 22 people had knives on them when stopped by the police, and some had been used as weapons.

By contrast, in London, there have been hundreds of such incidents, 19 deaths, public outcry and two very high-profile demonstrations, including the pro-life, anti-knife and gun crime rally last month, which ended in Trafalgar Square and attracted thousands of young people.

As far as Insp Kevin Whipps is concerned, there is no comparision - different demographics, different lifestyles, different world.

"Essex is a safe county and one which, thankfully, does not experience the same level of knife crime as seen in other areas of the country," declared Mr Whipps, head of Children and Young People for Essex Police.

"It's important to remember that the vast majority of people are law-abiding citizens, but we will continue to work inside schools, and within the communities we serve to keep Essex safe."

It is this "getting them young" approach which is bringing down antisocial behaviour and knife crime.

Last month, hundreds of children from primary schools in the Colchester area crammed into the town's Charter Hall for Essex Police's 2Smart roadshows.

These events tackle drugs, alcohol and bullying; they also highlight knife crime and how it is as important to say "no" to knives as it is to drugs.

"This campaign is for all those who are on the verge of secondary school," said Chief Insp Adrian Coombs, "and, yes, these roadshows do get the message across because many of the speakers have credibility with their young audiences."

Mr Coombs, police commander of the Colchester district, does not think it would have worked half so well had it just been police officers on the platform.

"We had a DJ and basketball player pushing the no' line, and Anne Oakes Odger, who is behind an anti-knife campaign."

Mrs Oakes Odger launched her campaign after her son, Westley, was stabbed to death as he used a cashpoint in Greenstead, Colchester, in 2005.

Since his death, his mother has worked to bring knife crime sentences in line with those for gun crime.

She has already handed a 5,000-name petition to Parliament, calling for MPs to rethink penalties for knife crime, but has not let her crusade stop there. Like the police, she believes young people must know about the fall-out from carrying knives.

She has already labelled the 2Smart programme "fantastic" and of "huge importance", and insists this educational approach is helping children and teenagers adopt a more common sense attitude to crime and drugs.

This is what Mr Whipps wants to hear. He pointed out that a mix of education and enforcement is "at the heart" of tackling crime and antisocial behaviour in Essex.

"However, one incident is one too many and Essex Police will deal robustly with anyone found to be committing an offence," he stressed.

"We will work tirelessly to prevent crime from taking place, but where it does, people should be assured we will tackle it robustly, and with the full weight of the criminal justice system."

In other words, no second chances.

"Anyone caught carrying an offensive weapon will be charged," said Mr Coombs.

"There is no excuse for having such a weapon, but I must point out that such incidents (in north Essex) are pretty scarce.

"Police officers stop and talk to a lot of kids, but it is rare for them to have knives. You just have to look at the figures. Every day in Colchester we get at least 40 people in custody for a variety of offences and, yes, that will include carrying knives.

"As we have only had 22 incidents involving knives for the first six months of this year, that puts knife crime into perspective. It is low, very low."

But as Mr Whipps said, one incident is one too many. The attack at the weekend in Colchester's Foundry Arms on Mark Ball while his wife, Michelle, could only watch in horror, may have been "rare", but that doesn't make it less ugly.

What it shouldn't do is persuade north Essex residents knife crimes are rising, because they are not.

KNIFE INCIDENTS IN COLCHESTER

Knife incidents - where people are found to be carrying knives but not necessarily to have used them to commit offences - are now dropping in Colchester:

  • 2003 - 56
  • 2004 - 61
  • 2005 - 83
  • 2006 - 57
  • 2007 - 52
  • 2008 (to July 9) - 22