TWO years after it witnessed the fatal stabbing of a teenage boy, a housing estate is looking to put its troubled past behind it.

Residents on the Limes Farm Estate, in Chigwell, were shaken in 2007 when Jack Large, 14, was stabbed to death outside the then closed police station, in Limes Avenue.

Since then, high profile police campaigns and community initiatives including football sessions with Tottenham Hotspur have seen anti-social behaviour on the estate reduced and crime figures down.

Jack's mum Julie Maddison, 46, of Yeomen Way, Hainault, said: “It's a lot more quiet now. There's not so many gangs on the streets. I think it's better. You don't hear about knife crime so much.

“I don't go to Limes Farm now. I find it hard to come to terms with Jack not being here. It's been a very quick two years.”

After her son's death, Mrs Maddison attended a conference on the rise of knife crime, but said she probably wouldn't campaign any further.

She said: “I went to one in the City and there were people putting their views over. There was a member of parliament and a chief police officer. We were appealing for harsher sentences. If you take someone's life you should get life.

“A policeman approached me about going to schools to talk about knife crime, but I don't think I could do it. It's still too painful.”

Jack's killer, a 16-year-old boy, from Chigwell, was convicted of manslaughter in 2008, and sentenced to five years' detention in a youth offenders' institute while his accomplice, a 14-year-old boy from Chigwell, was given a three-year supervision order for possessing an offensive weapon.

Both cannot be named for legal reasons.

Mrs Maddison said: “Everyone knows how I feel. I'll never forgive them. [The killer] will be out next year for good behaviour.”

Since Jack's death, Essex Police have made the Limes Farm Estate a priority with a Special Action Group set up and greater cooperation with the Met initiated.

Allen Warner, of Limes Avenue, Chigwell, was chairman of Limes Farm Community Association at the time of Jack's death.

He said: “From my point of view things have improved. The youth have been getting more use of the hall although they would like their own skateboard park really.

“Anti-social behaviour has diminished because the police forces are working together to target troublemakers and that's made a difference.”