Rubbish.

It is sometimes said only half jokingly that the main reason to contact one's local Council and the principal subject of any local election is the state of rubbish bin collection. It would seem that the collection of domestic waste is something which is extremely relevant to local residents throughout the country. This week I would like to ask readers their opinion of their local waste bin collection, and the performance of the subcontractors that carry out the work. Personally I have found the company used by Bexley Council to be subpar and the performance seems to be going downhill rapidly. In the last month I had my non-recyclable waste bin taken by the bin men and not returned. It was nowhere to be found and I had to order a replacement from the council website. To add insult to injury it was non-recyclable waste collection again this week but the contractor never turned up for the entire road. My neighbour contacted the council to complain and ask for collection which eventually happened on Saturday morning, but the contractor only wanted to collect my neighbours bin and not any of the dozens of other ones that had been missed previously. I had to have strong words to encourage the contractor to do what should have been done previously. On top of this, my food waste collection bin has not been emptied for three weeks and is now extremely unhygienic. From talking to other local residents, this is a common experience and not unique to me. Do other readers share these very disappointing experiences? Please let me know. Bearing in mind that domestic waste collection is one of the most visible functions of local government, it would seem to me that it is something that should be given a priority. Yet it currently appears to be one of the lowest common denominators, and on the face of it something Bexley Council is cutting corners with. I may be in error, but the evidence would seem to support my assumption. What do you think? Please let me know at the usual email address - hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I have written extensively in the past about both the benefits and the perils of electric scooters and bicycles. I think that many people can see the benefits of such vehicles, but at the same time they need to be properly legislated, regulated and controlled. As many of the models available both online and in retail shops are actually illegal under current transportation laws in the UK. As some readers may be aware, I have personal experience of being hit by an illegal scooter almost outside my own house. A couple of years ago I ended up with several cracked ribs and severe bruising. The rider made off after he picked himself off the floor and did not make so much as an apology, but exited at speed. This is not the only problem that personal light electric vehicles have. In fact, there is one that some feel is more serious and that is one of the risk of fire, especially when the vehicle is being charged often inside someone's house or flat. Lithium-ion batteries are found in many of our everyday devices, from smartphones to electric vehicles. When used properly, they are generally safe. However, if they are damaged, improperly charged, or cheaply manufactured, they can fail and lead to a dangerous chemical reaction known as "thermal runaway." This process causes a rapid and uncontrollable increase in temperature, which can result in a fire or explosion. Fires from lithium-ion batteries can develop with little to no warning, and they can spread rapidly. Fire services have reported a significant rise in incidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters, with many of these fires occurring in residential homes, including bedrooms and hallways, which can block escape routes. Several factors contribute to the fire risk of these devices: - Substandard and Counterfeit Products: Many fires are linked to cheap, non-branded, or counterfeit batteries and chargers that do not meet safety standards. An investigation by Electrical Safety First found a large number of highly dangerous e-bike chargers for sale on popular online marketplaces. These products may lack the necessary safety mechanisms to prevent overheating and overcharging. Improper Charging Practices:- Overcharging: Leaving a battery to charge for longer than the manufacturer's recommended time can lead to overheating. It's crucial to unplug the charger once the battery is full. Using the Wrong Charger: Using a charger that is not approved by the manufacturer can lead to a fire. Just because a plug fits, it doesn't mean it is compatible with the battery's specific voltage and current requirements. Charging Unattended: Fires often occur when devices are left to charge overnight or when the user is not at home. Physical Damage: A battery can be damaged from being dropped, punctured, or involved in a crash. Even if the damage is not visible on the outside, it can cause internal short circuits that may lead to a fire later on, even when the battery is not in use or charging. DIY Modifications: Converting a standard bicycle into an e-bike with an unverified online kit can be a significant fire risk. These kits may not have compatible components, and the installation process can lead to safety issues that increase the likelihood of a fire. If an e-bike or e-scooter battery starts to smoke or catches fire, do not attempt to extinguish it yourself. Lithium-ion battery fires are extremely hot and can produce toxic gases. The most important action is to get out, stay out, and call 999 immediately.

Last Wednesday evening BBC2 featured a documentary about the health problems experienced by  British soldiers during and after nuclear bomb testing in the 1950's and 1960's. What is less well known is the local connection to the storage and maintenance of the weapons in the UK, and their potentially deadly effect in the local area. I have written extensively in the past about the late Bexleyheath resident and former top Soviet spy Melita Norwood. I said that much of the evidence in respect of her giving the Russians details of the British atom bomb project were contradictory and unclear. Subsequent research I have carried out now lends a stronger argument that she did indeed betray British atomic secrets, and this was the reason that she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner – the Soviet approximate equivalent to the British George Medal. Norwood worked as a secretary at the Tube Alloys project; ostensibly this was a group of Anglo – Canadian scientists, engineers and metallurgists carrying on research into materials which could better resist heat and corrosion for use in both defence and civilian  industry. Actually most of this was a cover for what the project was actually dedicated to, which was the creation of Britain’s first atomic bomb, and a few years later with the creation of a British Hydrogen bomb. Contrary to much of received opinion, Britain was not privy to much of the nuclear research the Americans carried out after the end of World War II.  The Tube Alloys project actually began in 1942, before the Americans began the much more widely known Manhattan Project. Many Tube Alloys staff did join their American counterparts at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge during the war, and contributed much to the creation of Fat Man and Little Boy – the weapons used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively. Once the war had been won, politics took over and the non – US teams were repatriated, and the sharing of atomic information all but ceased under the terms of the McMahon Act of August 1946. (Ironically the Soviet Union got more British nuclear bomb design and construction information from Tube Alloys via the spying of Melita Norwood, than the Americans did by conventional means. The specific project to create a British nuclear weapon began in 1947 and was code named “HER” – which stood for High Explosive Research. After then Prime Minister Clement Attlee's government decided that Britain required the atomic bomb to maintain its position in world politics. In the words of Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, "That won't do at all ... we've got to have this ... I don't mind for myself, but I don't want any other Foreign Secretary of this country to be talked to or at by a Secretary of State in the United States as I have just had in my discussions with Mr Byrnes. We've got to have this thing over here whatever it costs ... We've got to have the bloody Union Jack on top of it." Initially the British atom bomb project was housed as Fort Halstead, near Sevenoaks in Kent, and also at the Royal Arsenal site in Woolwich (just imagine if there had been a serious accident – we might be calling Woolwich the South East London crater now). Later the entire production facility was relocated to Aldermaston, where it continues to this day. Britain’s early nuclear weapons were more than a little crude and shambolic; they lacked basic safety and security features, and potentially could go off on their own if the conditions were right. The main early post war bomb was called the Violet Club; it was a large implosion type un-boosted fission weapon that used a very large amount of Uranium 235 (which was less expensive and hard to enrich than the more efficient and powerful Plutonium 239 that the Americans and Russians used). Because of the very large weight – over 70 kilos of fissile material were used, the bomb was actually greater than critical mass (the amount of weapons grade fissile material needed to create a nuclear explosion) and could theoretically go off with very little provocation. The safety features on the weapon would have been laughable had the subject not been so serious. The arming switch of the bomb was secured with a bicycle padlock and an Allen key. The hollow sphere of Uranium that made up the warhead was filled up with 133,000 steel ball bearings, so that if the weapon did have its’ conventional explosive trigger accidentally go off, the sphere could not be crushed and go supercritical, causing a massive nuclear explosion. The ball bearings had to be removed before the weapon was ready to use. The trouble was, during routine maintenance, the bombs needed to be rotated to access various panels (including those that contained the bombs’ internal power supplies – a couple of six volt lead / acid motorbike batteries – I told you these bombs were built on the cheap). There are several documented occasions when the rubber bung holding the ball bearings in place fell out when the bomb was turned upside down, and all the ball bearings fell out over the floor. This left a very live and unpredictable weapon that could have gone off spontaneously. Now you see why I only half jokingly referred to the South East London crater. The graphic above (click on it for a larger version) was generated via the NukeMap nuclear explosion modelling website; it shows what would have happened had a Violet Club bomb been accidentally detonated whilst being serviced at Woolwich Arsenal - the results would have been horrific. Melita Norwood was not exactly secretive about her communist beliefs either to her employers or her friends and neighbours. The fact that she spied so extensively and so long for the KGB might lead one to wonder if other people knew her secret, and sympathised with her cause. Several books have been written on the subject of Melita Norwood and her long career as Russia’s top female spy; the best account is in my opinion “The Spy That Came In From The Co-Op” by Andrew Pierce. He conducted a series of interviews with Norwood in her house in Nursery Avenue, Bexleyheath from the day the spying story publicly broke in the spring of 1999 (he had been travelling to interview her on another subject, but the news story meant that he had a whole more important book to write than that he had intended).  Over the course of a few months and many cups of weak and milky Co-Op 99 brand tea – purchased from the Long Lane branch, she told him her complete story, whilst sipping from her Che Guevara mug. Like many traitors, Melita Norwood had a very selective memory, and her politics remained those of the extreme left until her death in 2005. The fact that MI5 and Special Branch used the excuse that she was too old to prosecute is surprising – although the real reason is that she would have probably spilled the beans on other spies that the authorities had also failed to detect for decades. Intelligence historian and writer Nigel West (the pen name of Rupert Allason) has given the opinion that Melita Norwood did more damage to British interests than the far more well – known Cambridge five group of KGB spies. Perhaps to protect their own already shaky reputations, the security services thought it better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Back in 1973 the site now occupied by the controversial Erith fish sculpture roundabout was then the location of the Wheatley Hotel - a Railway Hotel. A Railway Hotel was a combination of a pub downstairs, and a bed and breakfast upstairs; almost all railway stations at one stage or other had a railway hotel in close proximity - in this case, Erith Station was just across the road. In the time before the invention of the car, people travelling around the country would often need to break their train journey overnight. A room in a railway hotel was cheaper than a full hotel, as the features tended to be more basic, but they were convenient - they fulfilled the same function as  a modern Premier Inn - cheap and clean, at least in most cases. On top of this, local residents would use the pub located on the ground floor. I understand that the Wheatley Hotel was a pretty lively place on a Friday and Saturday night. One can also see the still working dock cranes in the background; they were located in the Erith Deep Water Wharf - what is now the site of Morrison's supermarket. The cranes were part of the pier, and were used to unload heavy cargo from moored vessels. Historically cargo which came on ships too large to make in to docklands or the Pool of London were unloaded at Erith. One of the regular cargoes landed at the Deep Water Wharf were the huge rolls of newsprint, which arrived from paper mills in Sweden. They were then taken by lorry to the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, where they were then stored before being taken by road to Fleet Street, where the national newspapers were primarily then still based.  To the left of the photo one can see Bosworth House - one of the high rise flats that had recently been built on the river front. If you click on the black and white image to enlarge it, you can make out the scaffolding still surrounding the then newly built block. Back then it was a council block; nowadays many of the flats in the tower are privately owned, and it is quite a desirable location, with amazing views across the River Thames. 

The end video this week is from popular public transport YouTuber Geoff Marshall, and features the launch of the new trains on the Docklands Light Railway, which will initially be running on the line between Woolwich and Stratford International stations. Comments and feedback as usual to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.