Blocked.

I took the photo above on Erith Pier; it shows the sun setting looking West over the River Thames at low tide. Click on the photo to see a larger view of this rather dramatic scene.

If you have an email address provided by British Telecom - that is one which uses bt.com, btopenworld.com, btinternet.com, bt.co.uk or any of the other BT address variations, you will not have received my customary Blog update email notifications for the last three or four Sundays. The reason for this is completely out of my control. For reasons best known to themselves, BT have blocked me from sending any emails to any of their address domains, as I have been falsely identified as sending Spam. If you are a BT customer, I would ask a favour of you. Could you log a call with BT technical support, asking them to unblock my email address? As usual this is hugh.neal@gmail.com. Many thanks in anticipation. 

Over the last week, parts of Slade Green and Crayford have been suffering from almost total traffic deadlock particularly around Thames Road. Bexley Council's information on the situation reads as follows:- "Works currently being undertaken at Thames Road outside the recycling centre are to install a cable into the new Cory site that is currently being built. Temporary traffic lights are in place to allow safe working on site from under the railway bridge on Thames Road to the roundabout at Bob Dunn Way. This is causing long delays in the Borough, particularly in the Crayford area. They are not Council works and a statutory requirement means that we cannot prevent or restrict the works taking place. The works are being carried out on Cory’s behalf by the contractor JSM. Please contact JSM with any queries on 0800 035 0708".

The finalists for the Great British Pub Awards 2024 have now been announced, highlighting some of the most exceptional venues in the industry. The Kings Arms in Bexleyheath has been nominated for the Best Town Pub Award, while The Guy Earl of Warwick in Welling will be competing to be named Best Community Pub of the year.

There has been a huge amount of press coverage of the recent tour by Taylor Swift. The arts in general, and music in particular are a subjective area; personally I cannot see what all the fuss is about with Taylor Swift - her music seems inoffensive, but to my ears it is rather bland. But then I am not her target demographic. Nevertheless, one serious issue that has been highlighted is the extreme difficulty concert goers have in purchasing gig tickets online. There have been many complaints that it is impossible to obtain tickets to see many popular bands when booking online; This seems to ring true for many fans who tried repeatedly to book tickets, only to discover that they had all gone within fifteen minutes. Many took this to be an indication of the huge popularity of the event, but unfortunately the situation runs far deeper than that. A problem exists now when anyone wishes to book a popular cultural event such as a concert or play or even tries to book a table in a popular restaurant – the venue will be booked out for the entire period however assiduous the booker has been. The reason for this situation is that certain unscrupulous people – often ticket agencies and others who wish to resell tickets or restaurant bookings at a profit, hire programmers to create what is known in the trade as a Bot. A Bot is a piece of software code that automates the process of making a ticket reservation or restaurant booking. It scans the relevant booking website and sends regular requests for page updates, looking for openings such as cancellations and filling in the web page request form far more rapidly than any human could ever hope to do. The Bot can run for days – never getting tired, never making a typo or missing an online field, and just grinding on until the required bookings have been made. Although the promoters have put pretty strict conditions on concert attendees (booker has to turn up with photo ID and their companions have to be with the booker at the time of entering the venue). This has already been shown to be ineffective. Tickets with a face value of £40 were available via a number of outlets at prices varying between £1,000 and £1,500 each. What the Americans call “scalpers” and we call “ticket touts” are behind this behaviour. I recently read about “Bot Wars” where organisations such as Ticketmaster are trying to analyse online booking behaviour in order to exclude orders submitted by Bots; recently they rejected just over 120,000 orders made for a number of events after they had been detected as Bot generated. The Bot writers get more sophisticated and there is a war waging between the two sides which shows no signs of abating. I can suggest that the only way to be sure that an event is not booked out by software Bots is to remove online ordering completely – go back to ordering via telephone or turning up at the venue in person to book tickets. Something that is unlikely to happen in many cases due to the high costs of employing staff to carry out the bookings. It may well mean that confidence in all forms of event booking are irretrievably damaged unless some drastic actions are taken – such as making the use of Bots a criminal offence with a suitably hefty penalty. People will swiftly cease booking events online once they lose faith in the system, and this would be a real shame – it would be like taking one step forwards, followed by two back. You can read more about software Bots by clicking here. 

The portrait above is of Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley, PC, FRS, FSA (29 April 1766 – 8 February 1851) who was an English politician, and one of the longest-serving Chancellors of the Exchequer in British history. For much of his life he lived in Crayford, and later in Foots Cray. Born in 1766, Vansittart was the son of a prominent colonial administrator. He received a classical education at Oxford and trained as a lawyer. However, his passion lay in politics. He entered Parliament in 1796 and quickly gained recognition for his staunch conservative views and expertise in financial matters. Vansittart became a close ally of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, championing Pitt's wartime policies, including heavy taxation to finance the fight against Napoleon. Vansittart became Chancellor in 1812, inheriting a precarious economic situation. The war had caused massive national debt, inflation, and widespread unemployment. Vansittart's approach was cautious. He maintained high taxes to pay down the debt and resisted calls for a return to the gold standard, fearing deflationary pressures. This strategy met with criticism, particularly from those struggling economically. While Vansittart's economic policies remain debated, he also implemented significant social reforms. A devout Christian, he promoted measures to improve public morality, such as restricting Sunday trading and promoting church building. He also played a role in the abolition of the slave trade. However, his handling of the agricultural depression of the early 1820s further eroded his popularity. Vansittart resigned as Chancellor in 1823 and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Bexley with a pension of £3,000 a year. Bexley took very little part in public business, although he introduced the Spitalfields Weavers Bill in 1823, and voted for Catholic Emancipation in 1824. He took a good deal of interest in the British and Foreign Bible Mission, the Church Missionary Society and kindred bodies, funded Kenyon college and seminary on the US western frontier (the seminary is now named Bexley Hall in his honour) and assisted in founding King's College London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822. He was also one of the vice-presidents of the American Colonisation Society, whose aim was to repatriate African freedmen in the United States to the African continent. He remained active in politics for several more years before retiring to private life. Lord Bexley married Catherine Isabella (1778–1810), daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, in July 1806. The marriage was childless. He died at Foots Cray, on 8 February 1851. As he had no male heir the title of Lord Bexley became extinct on his death. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

On Wednesday afternoon, just after 2.30 I was heading to Bexleyheath on the 99 bus; as we approached Slade Green the strong smell of smoke became apparent; as the bus approached Bridge Road, it became clear that the large open space adjacent to the road had a large grass fire. It is quite common for this to happen in hot and dry weather. The fire brigade were already on site and dealing with the issue. The fire brigade have published the following advice:- "Don’t drop cigarettes or anything that is burning on dry ground. Don’t drop cigarettes out of car windows - they may land on dry grass by the roadside. Don’t have barbecues in parks and public spaces. Do not barbecue on balconies, the wind may carry smouldering ash towards grassland. Be aware that children, animals, balls or anything else may knock over barbecues, increasing the risk of grass fires, especially when in busy parks or public spaces".

Further problems are being reported in relation to excessive charges for using the Dartford Crossing. In a letter to the Guardian, one local resident writes:- "I have an account with Dart Charge as I use the Dartford Crossing about once a month. This allows it to top up my account from my credit card. However, on several occasions, it has taken money unnecessarily. It has also made “other charges” for no apparent reason. This occurred three times late last year, and twice this year. I have written three letters, sent a copy of my credit card statement proving the deductions and raised at least 13 complaints. The points made in my letters are simply unanswered. It admits to having “a systems issue”. My wife is disabled and I am 80. Should I really have to send endless letters and emails to be met with a brick wall?" Last summer a private firm, Conduent, took over responsibility for vehicle identification and payment processing at the crossing. The change prompted chaos in the following weeks, leaving lots of people reporting they were unable to pay. It seems that Conduent's payment processing system is not working as it should. At present the issue has yet to be fully resolved. 

Community forum "Love Plumstead" have published the following announcement:- "We want to create an improved route and public space in Plumstead, where the High Street meets Pettman Bridge and the Underpass. We’re working in partnership with Peabody and Berkeley Homes, with funding from the Mayor of London’s Housing Zone. More than 200 local school students have been involved in producing designs to create a nicer, safer route and public space for the community. We want to find out what you think of the designs before work starts later this year. Our team will be at the Pettman Underpass from 11am to 3pm on Saturday 6 July to showcase the proposals and get feedback from local people. You can see the designs, share your views and enjoy an afternoon of fun, creative activities. You will also be able to give your feedback here on Commonplace or in Plumstead library where the proposals will be on display from 8 to 19 July 2024".

A while ago I wrote an article on local company Caterham Cars, and how they were moving construction of their lightweight, hand built sports road and track cars from their old factory in Kennet Road, Crayford to a brand new and larger facility in Dartford. The end video this week shows the impressive new factory. Curious people can now book guided factory tours. Comments and feedback to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.