Flood.

Quite a bit of supermarket news this week. Firstly, Morrisons are reinstating their butchery counters and their fresh fish counters in what they call Market Street. Apparently this is due to a major outcry from customers who were shocked when the supermarket chain did away with these facilities over a year ago. Apparently many previously loyal customers voted with their feet and Morrison sales dropped accordingly. Unfortunately, from the information I have been able to gather, Morrisons will not be restoring their cafes. This will no doubt be of a particular interest to shoppers at the Erith store, as the cafeteria was particularly popular, and was used as the informal meeting place for a number of community groups, and a gathering place for friends. Since I wrote the first piece on Morrisons earlier last week, another story regarding the supermarket chain has come to light. Unfortunately, whilst it is factually correct, it is incredibly misleading, and I believe this was part of the intention in order to create good public relations material for both Morrisons and its lead sponsor in this respect. The company has announced that from now until the start of September it will be offering free breakfasts, including a Kellogg's cereal and a selection of fruit to both school age children and their parents. The entire enterprise has been sponsored by Kellogg's, which is somewhat unsurprising under the circumstances. Morrisons will be doing this via its cafes. This is where the collision between facts and actuality occurs. Whilst it is true that Morrisons will be offering free breakfasts for eligible customers as described, as I have previously written, it has drastically cut back on the number of its internal cafes. In other words, the story is only true in a very limited sense, but it only applies to a very small number of supermarket locations, as a majority of the existing supermarkets no longer have a cafe. I suspect that this is just a piece of public relations fluff, and a somewhat cynical exercise. The third supermarket related story is extremely worrying. The second largest supermarket chain in the UK is that operated by Sainsbury's. They have very quietly and without a formal announcement introduced facial recognition technology to try and combat shoplifting. This was initially trialled at their shops in Sydenham and Bath, and has now been rolled out to many stores around Greater London, I understand including the large store in Abbey Wood. The facial recognition system is provided by a technology company Face Watch whose other customers include supermarkets such as Budgens, Cost Cutter, the Co-Op and Spa, as well as other retail outlets including B&M and Sports Direct. I am fully supportive of using technological means to combat crime. However, in the case of facial recognition technology, I feel that it is currently not as developed as the vendors might have you believe, and is subject to an undesirable level of false positive identifications. Many facial recognition systems use AI, which has primarily been trained using people of Caucasian origin. Because of this, the number of errors for people with non-white skin tends to be higher, and the inference is that under facial recognition systems, you are guilty until proven innocent. Basically the current technology is not in my opinion up to the job at present, although I do concede it is improving constantly. Part of the problem is also that the supermarket chains in general are cutting back on overheads by reducing the number of staff on duty at any one time, and increasing the number of self-service checkouts, as I have written extensively in the past, the self-service units have a far higher level of theft than those staffed by human operatives. Part of the incentive of using facial recognition technology is essentially to get rid of staff and consequently save money. I now quote a legal opinion published recently on IT trade news website The Register:- "Whichever retailer and whichever vendor, this is complaint material under UK GDPR, and the grounds write themselves. Facial recognition templates are biometric data, special category under Article 9. Processing needs an Article 6 lawful basis plus a separate Article 9 condition. The candid route is explicit consent, which no shopper has given. So operators of these systems tend to reach for "substantial public interest" via the DPA 2018 Schedule 1 crime prevention condition, dressing a private company's shrinkage budget up as a public interest. A regulator with a spine would ask how loss prevention at a grocer clears that bar. Then proportionality. These systems template every face that crosses the threshold, children included, and compare each one against a watch list so that a handful of suspects can be flagged. Screening the innocent wholesale is the mechanism itself, and Article 5 requires necessity and data minimisation. Recital 38 says children's data merits specific protection. Scanning toddlers to guard the meal deal fridge fails any balancing test performed honestly. Watch lists in this market deserve their own paragraph. They are typically built on staff allegations, shared across subscribing businesses, with no charge, no conviction and no independent appeal. A privatised criminal record, maintained by whoever profits from its consultation. And where the "human in the loop" amounts to a security guard glancing at a phone before marching someone out, Article 22 rights against solely automated decisions with significant effects start to bite, because review that never overturns an alert is decoration. Your signage point is a breach in its own right. Articles 12 and 13 require transparency at the point of collection, and ICO surveillance guidance expects prominent signage naming the controller and the purpose before you are in range of the lens. Cameras on clip strips with no notice is exactly the thing to evidence. Photograph them, note the store, date and time. Then use the rights you already hold. A subject access request under Article 15 to the retailer, and a second to whichever vendor runs the system, asking: was my biometric data processed, and my children's; am I on any watch list, who put me there and on what evidence; who receives alerts; how long are matches and non-matches retained; does any of it leave the UK; are images or templates used to train or improve any model. Object under Article 21 at the same time; processing must stop unless they demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds overriding yours. Ask whether the Article 35 DPIA exists and whether they will disclose it. And request copies. Article 15(3) entitles you to the data itself, which includes any recordings in which you appear, plus watch list images, alert logs and whatever metadata hangs off them. Give the store, date, time and what you were wearing, so nobody can plead inability to locate you. Other shoppers in frame have rights too, and the lawful response to that is blurring; a flat refusal on third-party grounds is one the ICO has rejected repeatedly. Move quickly, because conventional CCTV retention runs on a cycle of weeks and "no longer held" is the cheapest reply in the building. If they claim non-matched faces are deleted within seconds, ask for that in writing together with the deletion logs. A deletion claim without a log is a press release". Comments, feedback and opinions to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The local area has produced some outstanding engineers over the years. Yet one name that should be famous seems have been almost forgotten, and today if one thinks of local engineers, the mind goes to his rival Sir Hiram Maxim (Knighted in 1901) generally known for his pioneering machine gun and his experiments with heavier than air flight in Bexley, or to Richard Trevithick, who died at Dartford in poverty in 1833 after a lifetime spent developing the steam engine. The name of Sir William Anderson is largely unknown today, despite his achievements, and his strong local connections. One of Sir William Anderson’s biggest claims to fame was that he was instrumental in the invention of the smokeless explosive Cordite, which is used in shell casings as the propellant.  His early life was remarkable - He was the fourth son of John Anderson, a member of the firm of Matthews, Anderson, and Co., bankers and merchants of St. Petersburg, by his wife Frances, daughter of Dr. Simpson. He was educated at the St. Petersburg high commercial school, of which he became head. He carried off the silver medal, and although an English subject received the freedom of the city in consideration of his attainments. When he left Russia in 1849 he was proficient in English, Russian, German, and French. In 1849, he became a student in the Applied Sciences department at King's College, London, and on leaving became an associate. He next served a pupilage at the works of Sir William Fairbairn in Manchester, where he remained three years. In 1855 he joined the firm of Courtney, Stephens, and Co., of the Blackhall Place Ironworks, Dublin. There he did much general engineering work. He also designed several cranes, and was the first to adopt the braced web in bent cranes. In 1863 he became president of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland. In 1864 he joined the firm of Easton and Amos of the Grove, Southwark, and went to live at Erith, where the firm had decided to erect new works. He became a partner, and eventually head, of the firm which at a later date was styled Easton and Anderson - as per the advertisement shown above - click on it for a larger version. At Erith he had the chief responsibility in designing and laying out the works. Part of the business of the firm at that time was the construction of pumping machinery. Anderson materially improved the pattern of centrifugal pump devised by John George Appold. In 1870 he proceeded to Egypt to erect three sugar mills for the Khedive Ismail, which he had assisted to design. In 1872 he presented to the Institution of Civil Engineers an account of the sugar factory at Aba-el-Wakf, for which he received a Watt medal and a Telford premium. Anderson next turned his attention to gun mountings of the Moncrieff type, and designed several for the British government, which were made at the Erith works. In 1876 he designed twin Moncrieff turret mountings for 40-ton guns for the Russian admiralty, which were made at Erith and proved highly successful. Later he designed similar mountings for 50-ton guns for the same country, and about 1871 he designed the mountings for the battleship HMS Rupert. About 1878–82 he was occupied with large contracts which his firm had obtained for the waterworks of Antwerp and Seville. To render the waters of the river Nethe, which was little better than a sewer, available for drinking purposes, he invented, in conjunction with Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, a revolving iron purifier, which proved perfectly effectual. He contributed a paper on the Antwerp Waterworks to the Institution of Civil Engineers, for which he received a Telford medal and a premium. About 1888 Anderson was asked by the explosives committee of the War Office to design the machinery for the manufacture of the new smokeless explosive, Cordite. He had hardly commenced this task when, on 11 August 1889, he was appointed director-general of the ordnance factories. The duties of this post prevented him from continuing his work in relation to the cordite machinery, which was committed to his eldest son. Anderson made many improvements in the details of the management of the arsenal, and introduced greater economy into its administration. His improvements at the arsenal included the introduction of the eight hour day for his 17,000 workers and demonstrating that output did not suffer from the reduction of hours from 54 to 48 per week. Sir William Anderson lived in Erith for thirty four years, commuting by rail to his office in The Woolwich Royal Arsenal. He was also very involved with the Church – he served as Superintendent of the Sunday Schools of Christ Church Erith for twenty five years, and was also a licensed lay reader, who conducted services at a mission chapel supported by Christ Church. In his spare time Sir William Anderson was a keen maker – he would construct toys and gifts out of wood and metal that were made with exquisite attention to detail and workmanship. Contemporary reports say that Sir William Anderson was a rather serene, laid back man. An article in the Institute of Civil Engineering Journal in 1899 said “His character was a beautiful one, he was filled with a love of all things, and everyone that really knew him loved him also. He had no love of money and worked for work’s sake and because it was a sacred duty, rather than for gain, and he freely spent that which he had for the benefit of others, and but little on himself. He always had a serene and calm mind. No one ever angry, or heard a hasty or unkind word proceed from his lips. Those in difficulty or trouble naturally came to him assured in advance of any help or advice, and no genuine case of distress was disappointed”.  Sir William Anderson suffered from heart problems for many years, and eventually this led to his death on the 11th December 1898. A plaque dedicated to him can be seen on the wall of the North Aisle in Christ Church Erith. It reads “To the Glory of God, and in memory of Sir William Anderson KCB, FRS, DCL. For many years the earnest and devoted Superintendent of the Sunday Schools for this parish. He entered rest on December 11th 1898. Erected by subscription from the teachers, children and friends of the Sunday School”.

After the recent traffic chaos that I reported in the Blog last week, which caused massive disruption to road users around  Erith, Slade Green and Crayford, after the large gas main fractured in Bridge Road, Slade Green, there has been another major infrastructure breakdown. It was reported on Thursday afternoon last week that the major water main located outside of Crayford Town Hall had burst. This has caused flooding to the extent that the road is closed between the Station Road / Tower Retail Park roundabout and the Sainsbury's one - way system. The flooding was reported as being up to knee deep in many places, and Thames Water reported that the road would remain closed, with no vehicular access to the retail park for approximately 7 to 10 working days whilst repairs were undertaken. This will mean a major loss of business to the retail unit operators as well as the nearby McDonald's and Nandos restaurants. It was also reported that many households in Crayford were without mains water due to the major leak, although I understand this has subsequently been restored. Unsurprisingly, this is by no means the first time that there has been significant flooding caused by a failure of the Thames Water infrastructure. There has been much local anger at what residents perceive as a slap – dash approach to engineering by Thames Water. There have been accusations that if the previous damaged water pipe had been properly repaired, then the current pipe failure and consequent flood would not have happened. Nevertheless, the area in and around Crayford will experience severe disruption for at least another week.

Regional construction and demolition company The Erith Group, which is based in offices and a large depot located in Anchor Bay Wharf, Manor Road in Erith have recently won a major contract to demolish 99 Bishopsgate in the City of London. The 25-storey office building was completed in the mid-1970s but underwent a major refurbishment after being extensively damaged by an IRA bomb in 1993. Once demolition is completed, a new office block will be built on the site by another contractor called Multiplex. The 54-storey replacement will be the fifth tallest in the City when it is completed.

The end video this week is a short feature on the award - winning Slade Green Elderly Cinema Club, a social event that enables retired local residents to meet up for a meal, to meet old and new friends, and to watch classic films in a safe and secure environment. Comments and feedback should be sent to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.