Mural.

I took the photos above - click on either to see a larger version - on Friday lunch time. They show work to extend and improve the existing "Erith Unity" mural which is located under the Bronze Age Way bridge on the approach to Erith Station. The mural has been sponsored by Bexley Council. I had a chat with both the artist and the project manager - and was asked to record a short piece to camera describing my thoughts on the very colourful and striking mural. The official announcement regarding the mural reads:-"Bexley Community Safety Partnership (BCSP) worked closely with Youth Unity CIC, as part of an ongoing approach to reducing violence in the local area, through this funding Youth Unity worked to install an amazing piece of artwork into the community of Erith. Youth Unity worked with a local artist and youth worker, Cizeone to create this amazing 15-meter mural in Erith, which is located on the underpass beneath the bridge at Bronze Age Way, next to Bexley College.  Youth Unity also engaged the local community payback team to assist us in preparing the area ready for the artist to commence the piece. This contribution was instrumental in giving the team a sense of pride in their local area and was quoted to say “how great it was to be part of something and have the local community come and talk to them instead of walking past”. The message is a very positive one and has already received great feedback from the local community.  During the creation of the artwork we successfully engaged with many people from the community that stopped to find out more about the artwork".

I took the photo above (click on it to see a larger version) on Wednesday afternoon in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. It shows the former Wilkinson's / Wilko store which permanently closed last September. The giant store was by some measure the largest retail area in the shopping centre, and has been sorely missed by many locals. What attracted my attention was that the lights were on, and there was activity inside the building. There have been a number of rumours as to whether another retailer was going to take on the lease of the former Wilko store, but until now there was no evidence of any interest in the place. I saw a number of people wearing high visibility vests walking around, apparently examining the retail space, but at the time of writing I do not know in what capacity they were on site. If any reader has inside knowledge of what is going on, then please contact me in confidence at hugh.neal@gmail.com

Now for a bit of a challenge. Can anyone identify where the plaque in the photo above is located? No prizes - just a bit of fun, Answers on a postcard, or better still - email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

You may have read in the popular press that certain car insurance companies are refusing to insure certain models of vehicle, the most widely known model being the latest Range Rover. The reason they cite is that crooks have cracked the digital keyless entry system on the upmarket off – roaders, and crooks can just walk up to the cars and drive away – the hack involves a device that mimics the electronic key fob, not only unlocking the doors, disabling the alarm and the immobiliser, and even starting the engine. I understand that engineers at Jaguar Land Rover are currently investigating, and it is said that a recall of certain affected models for a firmware upgrade on their security systems is imminent. This is a bad state of affairs, but it would seem to be limited to a small number of vehicles from a specific car maker. Things are possibly going to get a whole lot worse though.  American security analyst Corey Thuen has discovered a state of affairs that could make the Range Rover security vulnerability look like small change. You may be aware that a number of UK insurance companies offer reduced premiums to drivers who have telematics “Black box” devices installed. Black box insurance works when your car is fitted with a small 'black box' device, about the size of a smartphone, which records speed, distance travelled and the time of day or night that you are on the road. The device also assesses your driving style by monitoring braking and cornering. It will also record the types of road on which you typically travel, and the times of day and night you tend to drive, to build up a comprehensive profile of you as a driver.  With a device fitted to your car you can access a website to find out how you are performing in each category. This will show you if you need to make any changes to your driving style, and will provide tips on how you can improve your driver score and bring down the cost of your insurance. As a rule of thumb it is assumed that driving fewer miles on less dangerous roads, while also limiting night time driving, will result in lower premiums. Policies linked to black box recorders charge premiums on a monthly basis, which means the insurer can adjust them swiftly to reward better driving (and punish those who show themselves to be a risky proposition). Aside from privacy concerns (personally I find the concept of being monitored via satellite repugnant, but I know many do not share my worries). The telematic devices may suit younger drivers – indeed I understand that some insurance companies will only issue policies to newly qualified drivers if they have a “black box” installed – at the driver's expense. In the USA there are over two million telematic monitoring units installed on vehicles, and it is likely that in the next few years they become widely spread all over the world. The problem is that the devices currently in use are extremely vulnerable to malicious interference. Corey Thuen said  “The firmware running on the black box is minimal and insecure. It does no validation or signing of firmware updates, no secure boot, no cellular authentication, no secure communications or encryption, no data execution prevention or attack mitigation technologies… basically it uses no security technologies whatsoever. A skilled attacker could almost certainly compromise such telematics black boxes to gain remote control of a vehicle, or even an entire fleet of vehicles. Once compromised, the consequences range from privacy data loss to life and limb; also, there is the attack vector of progressive back end infrastructure. If those systems are compromised, an attacker would have control over the devices that make it out to the field. In simple terms, we have seen that cars can be hacked and we have seen that mobile cellular communications can be hacked.” Privacy of data within cars is also a growing concern, one highlighted by Thuen’s research. BMW this week said it had repeatedly been asked by technology companies and advertisers to hand over the data their cars generated, but it has refused to give in to those requests. Thuen said it would be possible to intercept data passed between the black boxes and the insurance providers’ servers, likely including location and performance information, as they do nothing to encrypt or otherwise protect the information they collect. From my research, unless the telematics companies and to a lesser extent the car manufacturers take data integrity and security more seriously, it is only a matter of time before there are disastrous consequences. I predict that hackers will compromise whole fleets of vehicles, demanding cash ransoms to release vehicles from their control, in a very similar method to the current spate of “ransomware” that has affected many PC’s – a remote hacker encrypts a users’ files, then demands a fee to release the encryption key. I don't see any difference between a desktop or laptop PC and a car – indeed modern cars have as much if not more processing power than a home PC, so the analogy is sound.

The vintage photo above (click on it for a larger view) was originally taken by me as part of a school geography project on the River Thames, way back in 1981. You can see Erith Police Station - when it still was a police station, and not a seedy and badly converted bunch of low rent apartments as it is nowadays. Next to it are some buildings that were a remnant of the old Erith - they are boarded up in the photo; not too long afterwards they were demolished to make way for sheltered housing. I came across the photo whilst going through a huge pile of photographs whilst clearing out a cupboard in my Mum's house some years ago.

The much troubled three year old "new" Woolwich ferries have been taken out of service to try and fix the ongoing reliability problems that they have experienced since their highly publicised launch. I have recently had several readers comment to me that in their opinion, the Woolwich Ferry might well not exist, as the service has been intermittent or non - existent since the new boats were launched. Before the pandemic struck at the beginning of 2020 about 20,000 vehicles a week were using the free service across the Thames which opened in 1889. Pre-Covid-19, an estimated 2.6 million passengers also used the ferry annually. In recent times, a series of industrial disputes between the ferry crews and the ferry operator, and an ongoing series of unresolved mechanical failures have resulted in a service which for many users is not fit for purpose. There have been several problems with the "new" service; the ships are run by electric motors powered by diesel generators, and the new automated docking system is also powered by electro magnets. The diesel generators have so far proved far less reliable than predicted. On top of this, the electro magnetic docking system only seems to work properly when there is little wind or tide affecting the movement of the ferries as they dock. Anything less than perfect conditions causes the ferries to bounce on the docking mechanism, and fail to make a secure contact. I have read reports that the new ferries, despite their new technology, are actually far harder to operate than the old 1960's models that they replaced.

It has been reported in the local media that Abdul Kazemi and his son Syamoddin Kazemim, who run GK Homeware on Upper Wickham Lane in Welling, were each fined £600 each and made to pay an additional £1,589 in costs.In January 2022 the London Borough of Bexley's Trading Standards team visited the shop to advise them about the sale of knives, and how they must ask for proof of age from customers who appear under the age of 25. On June 6, 2022, the Trading Standards team sent a 16-year-old volunteer was sent to GK Homeware to try to buy a knife. The teenager was sold a knife and was not asked to show any photo ID. Abdul and Syamoddin, both of Pennine Way in Erith, were prosecuted. As well as a £600 fine each they were required to pay £400 in costs each and a pay a victim surcharge of £240. GK Homeware Limited, or which Abdul is the director, was ordered to pay costs of £549. Bexley’s Cabinet Member for Places, Cllr Peter Craske said: "Selling knives to under 18s is illegal and a very serious offence. Policies such as asking anyone who looks under 25 for proof of identity are in place to protect the local community. Our Trading Standards team works closely with the police to ensure local businesses comply with the law. We will not hesitate to take strong action where the safety of the public is called into question in this way.” London Borough of Bexley’s Trading Standards team said they regularly carry out a programme of test purchasing to verify the compliance of local shops when selling age-restricted goods.

The woes that have dogged Morrisons since it was sold to a US private equity group seem to be getting even worse. In a report released by credit rating agency Moody's last week, the supermarket chain's credit rating was re-assessed. Moody’s said the outlook for Morrisons’ ability to repay its £7.5 billion of debts had shifted to negative from stable and its existing junk rating knocked down one notch, from B1 to B2, indicating higher risk. Citing an “aggressive financial strategy, high leverage” and private equity ownership as factors in the downgrade, analysts flagged concerns about “operating under performance”, saying Morrisons was suffering from lower sales combined with higher costs for energy, wages and transport. The downgrade was triggered by lower than expected profits for 2022, as revealed in figures published by Morrisons last month, which meant the retailer’s debts now stand at 9.1 times underlying profits against the credit rating agency’s expectation of 6.5 times. Moody’s said the outlook was negative as Morrisons’ debt to profits ratio put it close to a further downgrade. However, the report added that the supermarket’s sales had risen ahead of Christmas and its market share had stabilised, according to data from the market research firm Kantar, suggesting profits could improve in 2023. The supermarket chain was taken private in 2021 in a £7 billion debt-fuelled takeover by the US private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, and the rising cost of living, supply chain logjams and political uncertainty have put the business under strain. The retailer, which lost its spot as the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket to Aldi last year, said underlying profits fell 15% to £828 million in the year ending 30 October, as revenues at established stores decreased by 4.2%. Revenues were down despite a rise in prices, with inflation meaning consumers are paying more on average for each item. Annual food inflation hit 13.3% in December, according to the British Retail Consortium. David Potts, the chief executive of Morrisons, last month defended the decision to exit the stock market, saying private equity ownership had not been a hindrance. He described last year as “one of transition”, adding: “We are combining well with CD&R to be more effective.” The credit rating shift move could make it harder for Morrisons to borrow money and mean that suppliers demand payment upfront, putting increased strain on a retailer’s finances. As I have previously written, I would not be at all surprised if the Erith branch of Morrisons was not bought up by one of the German discount chains such as Aldi or Lidl, as this would be preferable to building a new store from scratch. For those readers who consider this far - fetched, there is a local precedent - some years ago, Aldi bought out the Waitrose supermarket in the Orchards Shopping Centre in Dartford, and made a great success of it. 

The end video this week is from the 2023 exhibition by Erith Model Railway Society. The video shows several of their members' railway layouts. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.