the education select committee – could have a serious impact on the safety of young people in urban areas.

For Aaron the dangers of the street are real. His friend Negus McClean bled to death from stab wounds to his chest after he was attacked by a gang in nearby Edmonton. His attackers have not yet been arrested.

"People are getting stabbed these days over postcodes ... people getting stabbed up, people getting robbed, their house burgled, bare stuff is going on right now. Bare stuff, it's crazy."

The future of some organisations attempting to combat this postcode warfare is under threat. Erika Lopez, 19, one of the organisers of Hype (Haringey Young People Empowered), a youth-led group that tackles gang and postcode violence through activities such as football tournaments heldfire it but the trigger stuck and that's when they punched me in the face. I'm only here because of God's will."

Godwin Lawson was also a Hype member and a footballer who played for Oxford United. In March last year the 17-year-old was back in London to see friends and family when he was attacked by a gang.

"He had one stab wound straight in his heart and he died straight away," said his mother, Yvonne Lawson.

Surrounded by photos of her boy, his Oxford United shirt framed on the wall, she said the consequences of his death have been "beyond pain".

The streets are getting worse, she said. "Every day you switch the television on and you hear about one stabbing after another. You are scared for your life, for