Jersey honorary police hand out blunt pencils

Blunt pencils were handed out at the Jersey Homelife show due to concerns that sharp ends might lead to injury.

Fearing that they would fall foul of health and safety guidelines, honorary police removed the ends of the pencils.

There was no cost involved as an honorary officer removed the ends on his lathe.

Steve Pallet, president of the honorary police association, said they did not want to take any risks with children running around.

'Gone crazy'

He told BBC News: "We knew there were going to be a lot of young children at the Homelife show, a lot running around.

"We didn't want an accident where somebody could point the finger and ask why we gave very sharp pencils to young children."

There was no cost involved in making the pencils blunt as an officer did it himself, said Mr Pallet.

He said: "Somebody offered, he was semi-retired and spent an afternoon running them through a lathe to take the end off."

Mr Pallet said that all the parents he spoke to about the pencils responded in a positive way.

He said: "The only negative comments were from older people who don't live in that world and think the world has gone crazy."