The Exchange.

The photos above show the progress on works to restore the historic Carnegie Library in Walnut Tree Road, Erith. The first phase of building works, funded by the Mayor of London and London Borough of Bexley, is progressing well. Extra funds were provided by Bexley council to completely renew the roof. Other works include dealing with water ingress, the restoration of the weathervane and revealing the parquet flooring in what will become the ‘Bookstore Café’. The first phase of works is due to finish in September. This will allow The Exchange (the organisation which has taken a long term lease on the historic building, which is currently in the process of applying for charitable status) to partially reopen the Old Library for public use in the autumn. On June 14th, The Exchange will be opening the doors of the Old Library to provide tours of the space. They will be joined by Luisa Baker, Project Manager from London Borough of Bexley and Robin Lee Architects. Because of a recent break-in, The Exchange are having to take extra security precautions, so please do book onto a tour in advance of the day. The Exchange and London Borough of Bexley have received initial support from The Heritage Lottery Fund and the Architectural Heritage Fund to develop the second phase of the regeneration project. The £137,900 will be used to progress our plans for the upper floors of the building, as well as testing out activity ideas, business planning, continuing conversations with the community and delivering a major fundraising campaign. In the next 12 months, they need to raise another £300,000 which will support an application for a full grant of £980,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. To support this major fundraising campaign, The Exchange are on the hunt for a new member of the team. The Fundraising Officer will work closely with The Exchange Directors to develop funding bids and events that reflect the ambitions of The Exchange and the future role of the building within the community. More details can be found by following this link. As the refurbished Carnegie Library be opening in Autumn this year, The Exchange will be needing some help. If you are interested in supporting them in a voluntary capacity, they would like to hear from you. There will be a range of opportunities available including, Events, Learning, Research, Marketing and Gardening. If you are interested, visit The Exchange website to download a Volunteer Application Form. 

As has been (somewhat inaccurately) reported in the News Shopper, there was a very large multi agency raid, carried out on the Darent Industrial Estate on the Slade Green Marshes. The operation, which involved the Metropolitan Police, the Fire Brigade, The Home Office and Revenue and Customs happened on Wednesday morning - I personally saw a large convoy of vehicles, including a number of police buses full of officers, heading Eastwards along Manor Road at around 8.45 on Wednesday morning.  Prior to heading out to begin the operation, all the agencies had convened in the car park of Morrison's in Erith for a pre - raid briefing. I feel that this was quite a risky thing to do, as many of the people - legitimate and otherwise - who work on the Darent Industrial Estate use Morrisons on their way to and from work, and whilst any passers - by would not know the purpose of the large gathering of official vehicles, any criminal would be suspicious that something big was up. The official Police report from the Slade Green and North End ward reads thus:- "Our team were involved in a joint operation this morning with our police colleagues from Erith, Northumberland Heath and Belvedere SNT along with Immigration Officers, Trading Standards and other government agencies. An early morning entrance was made out on the Darent Industrial estate and at the time of writing there had been 2 arrests made for immigration offences, several stolen vehicles recovered and one establishment closed for operating with an incorrect licence. There are pictures on our Twitter page". I gather that there was rather more to the raid than just picking up some illegal immigrants and stopping a company operating with an incorrect licence. Hopefully more information will make it into the public domain in the near future.

The News Shopper is reporting that the second phase of demolition of Littlebrook power station is due to happen on Saturday the 9th of June at 11pm in the evening. Littlebrook "A" will be demolished in a controlled explosion which will cause the Dartford crossing to be closed for a time. Several major power plants around the country are being decommissioned due to their not meeting new and very strict environmental pollution standards. Littlebrook D Power Station was closed down in March 2015. Littlebrook was actually a series of four separate power stations adjacent to each other, located on the south bank of the River Thames, next to the Queen Elizabeth 2 Bridge and the Dartford Tunnel. The first power station on the site – Littlebrook A, was the coal-fired Littlebrook A Power Station, built by The Kent Electric Power Company in the early 1930s. It was opened in 1939. Coal was initially brought to the station by rail, until a riverside pier was completed. The station was later converted to burn supplementary oil over coal, and remained in use until it closed in 1973.  The construction of Littlebrook B Power Station was delayed by the Second World War, and came into use between 1949 and 1950. Like the A Station, it originally burned coal, but was later converted to burn oil instead. It had a capacity of 120 MW and remained in use until 1975. Littlebrook C Power Station was opened between 1952 and 1956 by the Central Electricity Board, and had a total generating capacity output of 240 MW. Like the two earlier plants, it was originally coal-fired, but was converted burn fuel oil by 1958. The station continued operating until it was replaced by the D Station in 1981. This station was built in response to a rapid demand for electricity as the Country emerged from austerity of the post war years.  The most recent station, Littlebrook D was an oil-fired power station and was built by the nationalised Central Electricity Generating Board. The station was built by The Cleveland Bridge Company with construction starting in 1976.  The first unit commissioning underway by 1981. The 1980s still saw a potential threat from the Cold War, and as such the CEGB designed Littlebrook D as a robust station with high plant redundancy, meaning that the station would form a pivotal role should disaster have struck the city of London. At this time, London was still dependent on several smaller generating stations within the city itself. Littlebrook D was one of a number of stations throughout the UK with black-start capabilities, meaning that it was able to start generating without an external power supply - the station would be one of the first to start generating should the UK experience a partial or complete blackout. Littlebrook D played a vital role in restoring power supplies to the South East of England in the days following The Great Storm of October 1987. As well as providing a black-start power supply to the country, the fact that they could synchronise and ramp up to full load in under five minutes means they were used to generate at the request of The National Grid Company (who operated the UK electricity grid system) to deal with short-term peaks in demand. Such peaks typically arise during the winter months, where evening demand is higher due to lighting and heating requirements. A modification was made to one of the boiler units which allowed for alternative fuel trials. Several were trialled at the Littlebrook D site as part of ongoing research into generating energy from more sustainable fuel sources. One of the main alternative fuels tested was wood chippings, but the energy density these supplied was far lower than fuel oil, so a far larger bulk of chippings was required to create a similar output of electricity. This was deemed to be unacceptable, and the trial was a failure. The station was finally owned by RWE nPower which is owned by the German utility company, RWE. They decided that Littlebrook would "opt-out" under The Large Combustion Plant Directive, an EU law aiming to deal with air pollutants created by the combustion of fossil fuels. This essentially meant that Littlebrook D would have to cease to generate after 2015 in its final configuration. The station ceased operating on 31 March 2015. The demolition of Littlebrook "A" will coincide with the already planned closure of the QE2 Bridge for maintenance, so as not to distract drivers. The 10-second event will not be visible from outside the station boundary and the site will be off limits during the demolition. Although the explosion and collapse may be heard off site, any noise will be over very quickly and non-harmful dust is extremely unlikely to go beyond the station’s grounds. The other main structures will be blown up throughout the year and into 2019, with the site fully cleared by 2020. What is currently not clear is when the iconic chimney - which is visible in much of Erith, Slade Green, Crayford and Dartford will be demolished.

It would seem that the short lived reign of the supermarket self service checkout may possibly be coming to an abrupt end. In a recent study a team at Voucher Codes Pro, a sales coupon website, quizzed 2,532 shoppers about their supermarket habits and found that close to a quarter had committed theft at a self-checkout machine at least once. (A figure from the same report suggested that the total cost of items stolen through self-checkout machines in 2017 came in at more than £3 billion, up from £1.6 billion in 2014, though I believe that the numbers are somewhat speculative). Some steal by accident, the study found, perhaps on account of a scanning error – honest mistakes. But many perpetrators know exactly what they are doing. Often, perpetrators will construct what they perceive as legitimate excuses for theft. Some feel justified in taking items when the checkout machine they’re using doesn’t operate smoothly (it is the machine’s fault). Others consider the items they steal as a kind of payment for work they’re completing on the supermarket’s behalf. Still more reach the self-checkout machine, look around, and see nothing but the inhuman trappings of a faceless corporation. Few would steal from an individual grocer. But from a multinational conglomerate? What difference does it make? The situation has been described as that individuals can neutralise guilt they might otherwise feel when stealing by telling themselves that there are no victims of the crime, no human being is actually being hurt by this, only some mega-corporation that can surely afford the loss of a few quid. In fact, the corporation has saved so much money by laying off all its cashiers that it is almost morally necessary to steal from them. I am vehemently opposed to self service for a number of reasons; firstly it has been demonstrated that the average time to complete a supermarket self service transaction is up to three times as long as one carried out by a staffed till – and that is without allowing for system errors. Secondly, why would you have a dog and bark yourself? Quite often the checkout person adds to the whole retail experience, and can problem solve on the go. Elderly people, or customers with small children can also find self service stressful. On top of this, the supermarkets only introduce self service as they think it will reduce their staffing overheads. This has proved to be a false economy, as although the number of checkout staff is reduced, the number of supervisors and security operatives has to increase – who tend to be paid a higher rate than the checkout staff. This particular matter has caused Wilkinson’s to remove them, as they discovered that the self service tills actually cost more by the time all the overhead costs were factored in; they were also finding the incidence of thefts and under age purchasing were on the rise. Self-service tills cost about £9,000 each, including installation, and manufacturer NCR estimates that they pay for themselves in about 15 months. A third more tills can be squeezed into a store and checkout staff can be deployed elsewhere. But the devices — and their frequent complaint of “unexpected item in bagging area” — are disliked by many shoppers, who argue that retailers are asking customers to do their work for them, and that it reduces interaction with staff. NCR argues that the counters cut prices. “Staff can be redeployed to the shop floor, so it can actually improve service,” A claim that has since found to be incorrect in very many cases. NCR believes that it is benefiting from modern social change, especially the growing convenience market. People are making more shopping trips, for fewer items — hence the spread of convenience outlets to meet demand — a phenomenon attributed by analysts to the breakdown in the nuclear family and traditional working patterns. NCR believes, moreover, that shoppers’ desire for healthy and fresh food and a growing desire to have cravings satisfied immediately have also driven the convenience boom. In my opinion, part of the whole shopping experience is the service and interaction with the staff - and as has been previously proved, the auto tills are not very secure. In fact, the whole chip and PIN security system is indeed threatened, as I have written about in the past. I refuse to do the supermarkets' work for them - and I detest these impersonal infringements on our shopping experience. In 2016 a report was published by the Criminology Department of the University of Leicester on self service checkout tills. The report found that installing self-service checkouts raises lost revenue by 122 percent. Some of it is accidental – people forget to scan items, or get confused by instructions; other times shoppers get so frustrated with self-service kiosks that they feel justified in not paying. The report  states that mostly people shoplift because the technology makes it so easy. Mobile phone scanning technology is just as vulnerable – the study found that at the end of a typical shopping trip, up to ten percent of items had not been scanned, leading to “shrinkage” (loss through wastage or theft) of about 3.9 percent of turnover. Unfortunately the technology makes it very difficult to prove that customers are deliberately stealing.  Often it is difficult for retailers to discern between malicious actions and honest mistakes – was the customer absent-minded or consciously fraudulent? – and proving intent can be perilous. Charge an honest shopper with theft and lose their business. Let a perpetrator off the hook and suffer a reduction in profit. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Now for the weekly safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly, Barnehurst ward:- "Good news again for Barnehurst as we did not have many crimes. Officers from the Barnehurst team served a local resident with a Community Protection Notice due to Anti-social behaviour. The team will continue to have a zero tolerance approach to Anti-social behaviour. If you wish to report any Anti-social behaviour on the ward please contact us on 020 8721 2577. The Barnehurst team met the new ward councillors, who are Councillor Brain Bishop and Councillor Howard Jackson. The meeting was extremely productive and positive as we are hopeful that we will work well together in making Barnehurst ward a safer place. Please join us for our community contact day on Wednesday 30th May at 1pm at Barnehurst Golf Course. We will discuss any ward issues that you have and we will also provide residents with crime prevention advice. Two new Neighbourhood Watches are in the process of being launched. Residents from Merewood Road and Beechcroft Avenue have volunteered to act as Coordinators. We are keen for other residents to come forward in the hope to get full Neighbourhood Watch coverage in every street". Bexleyheath ward:- "As previously mentioned the new ward boundaries are now in place across the borough. The name of our ward is now Bexleyheath Ward, previously Christchurch. Please make sure you have the right contact details for us which is below this update. We are getting to know the new areas on our ward with residents. We are communicating with previous ward officers to make sure we have a smooth changeover. In relation to what has been going on the ward. Over the last week, we have had no reported residential burglaries which is fantastic news. As part of our business as usual we continually patrol the ASB areas on our ward at various times which includes open spaces, car parks and areas you have informed us of. We have had various reports of ASB around the ward involving, youths in Martens Grove Park, vehicle meets in ASDA carpark, drugs and involving motorbikes and cars. We have noticed an increase in graffiti on the ward in Martins Grove Park, Russell Park, Marriot car park. The council have been notified to remove them as quickly as possible. If you do notice any graffiti on the ward. Please contact the council and they should be able to remove it as soon as possible, this can be done easily online. Normally anything offensive/racial you would need to report it to Police also. We were notified of an incident of Criminal damage to a motor vehicle in the cinema car park but are awaiting details. As part of Bike Week we have been invited to be a part of this initiative which is on Saturday 9th June along the Broadway between 10am and 2pm where be lots of stalls etc and we will have our bike marking stall as well as the MSC holding a recruitment stall. There is no charge for this so please pop along if you are available with your bikes and get them marked, feel free to mention to others who may not get this information. Please don’t forget to come and see us at our contact sessions which are advertised. The next one is on the 30th June will be at Lidl Bexleyheath between 4pm & 5pm, come along if you wish to speak to us if you are around then. Their seems to be a little confusion with regards how to report crime. You should either dial 999 if it is an emergency, dial 101 for all non emergency’s, via the Met police website, or in person. If you want to pass on information then please email our mail box or Crimestoppers 0800555111 Other means of contacting us are obviously Twitter, Facebook, email and the ward phone as per below. For crime prevention advice, please look at the Met Police website which has the information that you may find useful. Remember In an emergency please dial 999 and 101 for non-urgent reporting". Crayford ward:- "At approximately 03.30 hrs on Sunday 20th May, a house in Woodside Road was raided by armed police and a firearm was found within the property. The next morning at approx. 06.00 hrs, officers again entered the property and made an arrest. There have been reports of criminal damage to motor vehicles this week. Between 21.00 on 17th May and 07.00 on 18th May, a Black Ford Fiesta had its tyres stabbed multiple times outside an address in Wolsey Close, this is a hire vehicle. On 27 April at 02.15, what was believed to be a firework was thrown in to a car parked in Dale Close, there was damage to the soft hood and it created a dent. Between 13.00 on the 18th May and 16.30 on the 19th May the front passenger window of a vehicle was smashed and the door damaged whilst parked in the underground car park at Tanners Close, Perry Street, there were also historic issues reported such as eggs being thrown at the vehicle. There was an attempted robbery in Halcot Avenue on the 17th May at 11.49. The victim was chased on his moped and an attempt was made to ram it. It was believed that the suspects were trying to steal the victim’s vehicle but then crashed their own vehicle, no threats were heard. On Saturday 19th May at 19.50, two males entered the Bottle and Basket in Crayford Way and demanded money from the till with the threat of a weapon. The person working in the shop, whilst very frightened was able to activate the panic alarm and the suspects fled the scene with nothing, police were very quickly on the scene. Our team came across a damage only accident and assisted with a road closure whilst awaiting the council to clear an oil spill in the road. Two males were also arrested, three mobile phone tickets and one speeding ticket issued to motorists as part of our ward panel promise. We have carried out foot and mobile patrols of areas coming to notice for anti-social behaviour and looking at ways to suitably reduce and prevent this issue. Our ward panel will be held on Thursday 31st May, if you would be interested in attending, please contact us". Erith ward:- "We held 2 free bike marking events in Erith last week marking almost 20 bikes for local residents, I will arrange more dates for this in the future. We are still working hard on trying to get 100 percent Neighbourhood Watch coverage in Erith I am guessing we are at around 70 percent at the moment. Some upcoming dates for our Community Contact Session - feel welcome to pop along: Wednesday 30/05/18 we will be in Erith Library from 11am". Northumberland Heath ward:- "No burglaries have been reported to us for several weeks now which is great news. One theft of motor vehicle from Austen Road which was stolen on May 11th but was not reported until May 18th. The vehicle has since been recovered. One criminal damage to a window in Cartmel Road on the evening of Friday May 19th. Several bottles of milk have been stolen from a doorstep in Nurstead Road the early hours of the morning on Thursday May 17th. This has happened to the same victim over the last month or so. The Clarkes travel shop in Bexley Road have reported lead missing from the roof of the premises to the value of £2,000. It is unclear exactly when this took place. The team will be at the Sunshine Café next Wednesday May 30th at Noon for our coffee with cops event". Slade Green and North End ward:- "A garage was burgled sometime Monday/Tuesday this week in Newbery Road. A small child's bike was stolen. No forced entry. A male offered to cut the victims grass last weekend and was taken up on the offer. There is no evidence linking this male to any involvement in this theft but please be vigilant when using any cash in hand services offered by random passers by. Street lighting/Scaffold poles with around an £8000 value were stolen and damaged from the new Egerton Place development (the old Linpac site, Slade Green Road) last weekend. Unfortunately the area is not covered by cctv but patrols will be made past the site in the coming days. We have been leafleting the Frobisher Road estate with our “Rat a Rat” campaign, reminding residents that calls about drug dealers living or dealing nearby can be reported anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800555111. We will hopefully do a few more leaflet drops and get some posters up across the ward in the coming weeks. All the information reported to Crimestoppers does make it’s way to us so it is a good way to report crime/drug dealing etc if you are unsure about speaking directly to the police. We have a Community Contact Session this Sunday (27th May) from 11am at our office in Pier Road, then another this coming Tuesday (29th May) from 1030am at the café in Forest Road. Please come and say hi if you are nearby". Thamesmead East Ward:- "On Wednesday 16/05/18 between the hours of1:00pm and 4:00pm a pedal cycle was stolen from the Thames innovation Centre, Yarnton Way. Over the night of Friday 18/05/18 and Saturday 19/05/19, the side window of a vehicle parked in Glimpsing Green was smashed and items were taken from the glove box; A vehicle which was locked and secure parked in an underground car park in Eastgate Close was stolen overnight of Saturday 19/05/18 and Sunday 20/05/18. Criminal damage was caused to a vehicle parked in Hartslock Drive between the hours of 11:00pm on Sunday 20/05/18 and 06:00am on Monday 21/05/18 .The tyres of the vehicle were slashed; A vehicle which was under repair following a Road Traffic Accident was stolen from Hartslock Drive between the hours of 06:00 pm Tuesday 22/05/18 and 06:00am Wednesday 23/05/18. Have a Say event: Tuesday 29/05/18 between the hours of 2:00pm and 3:00pm the team will be attending The Thamesmead Library, Bazalgette Way. An opportunity for members of the community who prefer face- to – face contact, to speak with a Dedicated Ward Officer.  Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Information: Take it with you - Mobile phone, coins, sunglasses can earn quick cash are irresistible to the opportunist thief. Remember the cost of replacing a window is often much more than of what’s been stolen. Wallets, handbags purses and credit cards should never be left un an unattended vehicle".

One of the down sides of the Maggot Sandwich only publishing once a week on a Sunday, is that occasionally it can become overtaken by events. The end video below was found on YouTube by me on Monday, and I embedded it in the draft of this issue. Unbeknownst to me, some bright spark at the News Shopper also came across it, and republished it under the News Shopper banner during the week. I had actually found it first. I digress; the video shows the testing of the brand new British Rail Class 345 trains on the Crossrail / Elizabeth Line from Abbey Wood Station. Give the video a watch, and please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.