The Bird and Barrel.

Progress on the new housing development on the site of the old Erith Riverside Swimming Baths has stopped for the Christmas break; the whole project is running somewhat behind schedule through no fault of the developers. The company that was contracted to demolish the old swimming baths and to clear the site of all of the resultant rubble and waste materials took a short cut. Instead of using trucks to remove all of the spoils, thee bulldozed most of the material into the hole that was the empty swimming pool itself. They then paid a thin layer of topsoil over the top and planted grass seeds; the finished site looked fine, and it was only when the building firm hired by the developers moved onto the site and started to dig the foundations for the new flats and houses that the short cut by the demolition company was then discovered. This obviously slowed down construction work on the site. The Riverside Baths site is only one of several new developments in what is being called the Greater Erith Project. This project is a collaborative venture between Bexley Council, The Greater London Authority, Transport for London and The London Enterprise Panel. According to what I have read, The Council’s vision for Erith is to encourage housing and employment growth, allied with the provision of additional services, facilities and infrastructure, including an enhanced educational and leisure offer, to ensure the creation of a sustainable and healthier community. Key elements of this approach are the encouragement of mixed use developments within and around the town centre of high design quality which respect the areas built and natural heritage, improve accessibility, enhance environmental quality and maximise the recreational, ecological and flood management potential of the River Thames. The regeneration of Erith Town Centre will create new coherent predominantly residential riverside communities, which will provide a mix of housing, new and improved business premises, community uses, and public transport improvements within a framework of new residential streets with an improved public realm. The London Regeneration Fund (LRF) will finance major physical improvements to key areas of the town, particularly to the area between the Town Hall and the Post Office. It will also pay for activities designed to re-energise the area and to improve training and job opportunities for local residents. How much of this will actually be delivered remains to be seen, but I am cautiously optimistic. What does concern me is that whilst some improvements will be made in and around Erith Station, the fundamental problem related to the station looks like it is not going to be addressed; that is, the lack of step free access to the London bound platform. Nearby stations such as Bexleyheath have a passenger lift, even though it does not really need one - as both platforms can be easily accessed by a buggy or wheelchair user from the road and pedestrian bridges at each end of the platform. At Erith Station however, there is no such option - the only way to get to the London bound platform is to climb the Victorian footbridge, which is about as unfriendly to those with mobility challenges as you can get. The only alternative is to stay on the Kent bound platform and get the train to Dartford, change there using the passenger lifts at that station, and then come back the other way, towards London. This is time consuming and impractical for many wheelchair and buggy users, and besides that, why should they be treated differently from other rail users? Local MP Teresa Pearce has long campaigned for step free access to the London bound platform at Erith Station, but thus far her efforts have met with little success. I am hopeful that as the profile of the town increases as the development money is spent locally, that her efforts to improve the station for all users will get better recognition. Work also starts in the next couple of weeks on the refurbishment and repurposing of the old Carnegie Library in Walnut Tree Road. It will become a centre for ‘innovation, creativity, learning and production’ once The Exchange become new occupiers of the landmark. The local company will take on the building under a lease and partnership agreement with the London Borough of Bexley. Councillor Linda Bailey, Cabinet member for Regeneration and Growth, said in a recent interview:- “We are very pleased to have found three experienced local entrepreneurs who have established The Exchange Ltd to work with us to prepare the building for the next exciting phase in its history. “We have agreed to co-finance the refurbishment of the building together with the Mayor of London and the new operator, and we believe it will be a powerful demonstration of the ways in which regeneration can benefit the town and its people.” The Exchange plan to offer cultural, artistic and designer studios. and workshop space for creative businesses to make and sell products. I was fortunate enough to attend the former library open day a while back, and I was absolutely astounded as to just how big the place is; back in the day when it was still open and operating as a library, only around a third of the building space was actually open to the public. On the open day the entire structure was open for investigation, and I have to say that The Exchange have got a huge job in front of them - the library building has been neglected for the best part of a decade, and whilst it is not exactly falling down, the building is not secure from the weather; when it rains, water pours down the inside of several of the windows, and in places, trees are growing inside the structure. All of this can be rectified with sufficient money and construction resources.

A report recently published by The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) shows the startling change in recycling rates in the boroughs that make up South East London. The report shows that Bexley is recycling less than it did in 2012, despite the data being more positive than Lewisham and Dartford. Between March 2016 and March 2017 - 53 per cent of all rubbish from households was recycled, which is one per cent less than the same period from 2011 to 2012. In the 12 months to the end of March this year Bexley cleared away 121,304 tonnes of rubbish, with 81 per cent of that household waste. I have discovered that the real reason that Bexley have stopped providing plastic and drinks container collection facilities at their recycling points is less to do with contamination of the materials previously deposited at the sites as they claim, and rather more to do with cold, hard cash. It has come to my attention that certain countries such as China are stopping the importation of plastic waste due to environmental concerns. This has meant that the charges imposed by plastic sorting and grading plants are now increasing because of their now increased overheads. Bexley Council don't want to spend the extra money - it would seem (no great surprise) that Bexley would rather that the local environment would suffer rather than paying for the additional recycling costs. As previously mentioned, Bexley Council is not alone in allowing plastic recycling to slip down their agenda; in fact central government is aware, and it is becoming increasingly likely that new rules enforcing minimum rates for plastic recycling may be forced onto local councils. I for one would like to see the plastic and drinks container hoppers restored to the various recycling facilities around Bexley, and I know I am not alone in this.

I am aware that humour is a very personal thing, and what appeals to one person may not appeal to another. Nevertheless, I have been astonished at the success of one programme in particular, which I just cannot understand the appeal of, as it seems to hark back to early 1970’s sit coms like “Bless this House” and “On the Buses” whilst to my mind lacking the wit or charm of those shows. On top of all this, the show managed to rack up the highest viewing ratings of the Christmas period – so a lot of people must like it. What show am I talking about? “Mrs Brown's Boys”. It really seems to be a Marmite show for a lot of viewers – you either love or loathe it, and I am firmly in the latter group. It does seem to be a “guilty pleasure” programme, as when I have mentioned it to people, all I have asked have said that they detest it, but some at least must be lying, as the viewing figures have been so high. I won't bother a critique of “Mrs Browns Boys” as others have done far better than I, and I know my personal views are extremely unlikely to sway the opinion of someone who actually likes the show. I am mystified. If you have any thoughts on this, then please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Talking of TV shows, I am reminded that not very long ago I wrote about the fate of so called "Smart" TV's purchased only three or four years ago. Apps written for these not quite brand new models simply cease working as the app producers only write the latest version of their software for the most recent TV models. Samsung smart TV's from 2012 - 2013 have suffered this fate, and the same is happening with sets from other manufacturers. I have had a couple of readers contact me, asking what they should look for when buying a new TV set. In the past I have advised against purchasing a 4K TV, as so little 4K content was available. This is now changing. I know many potential purchasers are somewhat discouraged, as they have seen so many "must have" technologies incorporated into TV's fall by the wayside - 3D anyone? None of the mainstream TV manufacturers still makes a TV with 3D capability nowadays. It was all of the rage four years ago, but now it is almost completely forgotten - in my opinion 3D was always a solution looking for a problem. The new technologies that are now becoming commonplace in contemporary televisions are far less gimmicky than 3D. After the 3D debacle, and the less than stellar performance of apps used on Smart TV's compared to the average laptop, it could be argued that 4K and HDR are the next big forgettable fad. The difference here is that both technologies simply improve an existing experience. You don’t have to fight with an uncooperative system, wear special glasses or buy yet another version of the same movie you already own on DVD or Blu-Ray. Good 4K Ultra HD TVs are available for well under £1,000, with even really great, big sets costing under £1,500 – such as Sony’s fantastic 55in Bravia XE9005. While more pixels benefits large screens, it is HDR that has film and TV makers excited, as not only can it be made with four times the number of pixels, those pixels can be better. HDR allows content creators to better display their vision on your small screen as they have done on the big screen, as well as do things that have not been possible with SDR formats. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range video is that recorded and displayed with a wider range of colours than so called standard dynamic range (SDR). HDR video therefore has a greater range of both contrast and colour  than SDR, resulting in a more true-to-life picture and producing scenes with more "pop" or depth. HDR is usually combined with the increased resolution of 4K video producing greater detail and immersion. HDR video is different to HDR photography, where the latter is a technique that combines multiple exposures of a scene to create a single image with a greater dynamic range of luminosity, mimicking what is seen by the human eye. There are a number of different HDR standards, and different manufacturers don't always stick to the same standards. As of now, almost all but the very bottom end 4K televisions will have at least the basic level of HDR implementation, so buyers don't need to worry over much. The difference that has happened in 2017 has been the increase in native 4K content available for these new ultra high definition televisions. Both Netflix and Amazon Video are producing original content in 4K HDR, with Sky TV and BT TV playing catch up. Because of the extremely large quantity of data a 4K HDR picture requires, you will not be seeing ultra high definition programmes broadcast on Freeview or FreeSat any time soon. It has to be said that the future of all television is now in the arena of streaming. I predict that Sky TV will be entirely satellite free within the next five years - as fibre broadband gets faster and more ubiquitous, the need for expensive and potentially unreliable broadcasting satellites will simply cease to exist.

A story that I have been asked to keep quiet about for some time has now broken publicly; it was a bit of an open secret to be honest, but now the time has come where I can announce that The Bexley Brewery are opening a Micro Pub at 100, Barnehurst Road, Barnehurst, close to Barnehurst Station. The Micro Pub is going to be called The Bird and Barrel - after the green Parakeet bird that the brewery use as their logo. The Micro Pub was originally stared on the site a couple of years ago, but the chap who was behind it ended up puling out before it was ready to open. Cliff, Jane and Cameron Murphy have taken over the former Aquacadabra tropical fish shop (see the photo above - click on it for a larger view) and finished the conversion into the borough's latest Micro Pub. I have been promised the first photos and a preview visit before The Bird and Barrel opens to the general public - more on this story very soon.

I have long known that the Maggot Sandwich gets read by people far outside of its target area; I have previously had messages of support from places as far afield as Brazil, Melbourne in Australia, Tokyo in Japan, and most recently a very nice message from a chap called Patrick, who lives for several months of the year in the city of Perm in the Russian Federation, very close to the border with Siberia. He mentioned that winter temperatures are usually around minus 25 degrees Celsius. He did also comment that the local people were amazingly hospitable. When not in Russia, Patrick lives in the slightly less exotic surroundings of Dartford.

A report was published in August 2016, the findings of which surprised me not in the slightest. The report from The Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester suggested that supermarket self-checkout technology encourages even normally honest shoppers to commit theft. 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. But the report  stated 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. One retailer admitted they almost never prosecute people. For that reason supermarkets are now introducing tagging systems so un-scanned items trigger alarms. Supermarkets such as Morrison’s in Erith have now expanded the number of self – service checkouts so that now half of all tills are of this type. Finding an open, traditionally staffed checkouts are becoming a challenge to find. This week, to cement the academic findings of last year, a new report was published by The Office of National Statistics which said that £3.2 billion worth of goods is stolen through the self-scanning tills every year. The Office of National Statistics has previously revealed that shoplifting has increased by more than ten per cent in the last year. I have been told that the cost savings in checkout staff wage reductions is more than offset by both the increase in stock theft and the requirement to hire more security guards – who in any case are usually on a higher hourly rate than the checkout staff that they replace. I have always wondered why you have to pay the same price for an item when it is purchased via a self – service till when compared to a traditional one – after all, you are doing work on behalf of the supermarket, and surely this should be reflected in a cheaper cost? Personally I refuse to ever use self-service tills – why have a dog and bark yourself? I would not be at all surprised if the losses incurred via self-service till thefts cause the big supermarkets to re-think their strategy – which at no point is aimed at helping the customer – it is purely about making it as easy for the supermarket to collect money as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association:- Firstly from Barnehurst ward:- "Barnehurst has just one burglary to report. This took place in Lea Vale on Wednesday 20th December 2017 between the early hours of 02.50 and 03.10. The resident was woken by a loud bang in the early hours. The suspect was seen running down the stairs holding a torch light. When the resident went to the window the suspect was seen getting into a dark coloured Honda Civic. There were at least two occupants in the vehicle, this vehicle sped off with the headlights off in unknown direction. There has been no reports of anti-social behaviour and the team are continuing to patrol all relevant areas. There have been no further reports of golf balls being thrown at property’s in Taunton Close. Concentrated patrols are being carried out to Martens Avenue in particular the garaged area of Braeside Crescent and to the alleys leading to Martens Avenue'. Belvedere ward:- "PC’s Green and Holmes have been busy continuing mobile patrols in the north of the borough, assisted by officers from neighboring wards. The team have been made aware of damage to garages in Lumley Close. We would like to ask that if anyone has any information in relation to this, please contact us on 0208 721 2050. We are currently making enquiries with the garage owners as the garages remain unsecured. PCSO Worrall also assisted officers from Northumberland Heath SNT recently with visits to residents of Hythe Avenue and Shinglewell Road after two burglaries took place in those streets. Home security and crime prevention advice was offered to residents. With help from a concerned resident of Picardy Road, PCSO Worrall was able to reunite a lost dog with her owner recently. The family pet had been able to find her way from her new home back to where the family previously lived in Belvedere". Brampton ward:- "On 22nd December 2017 overnight in Belvedere Road a resident reported criminal damage to property whereby three large spherical concrete balls were knocked off the brick wall at the venue. In Birchington Close overnight on 21st December 2017 a car tyre was punctured. This type of Incident has become an ongoing issue in Birchington Close. Due to the number of reported incidents here CCTV has now been installed to monitor and hopefully establish what’s going on in this area". Christchurch ward:- "Over night on 20th/21st December there was an attempted burglary in Rochester Drive. The Ring doorbell was removed in an attempt to stop CCTV footage of the burglars being recorded. Fortunately entry was not gained to the property. Over night on 21st/22nd December there was a burglary in Standard Road whilst the home owners slept. It is thought that the burglars were disturbed as only a handbag was stolen". Crayford ward:- "Good news - there has been no reports of any burglaries on Crayford ward. On 26th December 2017 a black BMW coupe 318i, vehicle registration number is T213 JVH was found taken from Barnes Cray Road. Local residents saw a white truck taking the vehicle away at midnight a couple of days prior. On 20th December 2017 between 09.00pm and 02.00pm on 21st December 2017 victim found their vehicle had been criminally damaged in Crayford way. The vehicle had been parked in the road locked and secure but was later found with a broken passenger side window and the ignition had been removed from the steering column with peripheral damage". North End ward:- "Not a nice way to start the festive email but we had a burglary in Slade Green Road during the afternoon of Christmas Eve, money and an expensive camera were stolen. Entry was gained through the front door by removing a small window of the door. Please call police if you see anyone tampering at any doorway. Erith Food and Wine Store in The Nursery had a robbery last Saturday with £160 stolen from the till. This occurred shortly after the same suspect tried the same thing at Northend Road Superstore a few minutes earlier. Fortunately nobody was hurt in either incident but CCTV has not given us a clear image of the suspect. A short update this week due to minimal staff and a few days not worked but we would like to wish you all a safe and Happy New Year. Thamesmead East ward:- "No Burglaries to report, however a vehicle was broken into during the early hours of Friday 22nd December 2017, Holstein Way. Nothing believed to have been taken. While on routine foot patrol, PC Nana identified a male who was wanted for a Domestic Assault, and quickly detained him, despite patrolling alone, and the male being known to Police for violence in the past (Great work). PC Pruden has interviewed a male in relation to Anti-Social Behaviour- riding Mopeds. Enquiries and further interviews to follow. The team have also been over the busy Christmas period, working into the early hours of the morning, and this will continue into the New Year. We are always interested in recruiting new Neighbourhood watch co-ordinators for the ward. Please ask your family and friends if they would like to set up a Neighbourhood watch in their road. Please spread the word to any family and friends in the Borough - they can contact us on 020 8721 2049 or Thamesmead.SNT@met.police.uk for more information. For the latest news updates and information from Bexley Police, please visit our twitter pages - @MPSBexley and @MPSThamesmeadE".

I know that many local people have been extremely unhappy about the disruption to the train services into London via both the Bexleyheath and Greenwich rail lines over the Christmas period. Public transport expert and TV presenter Geoff Marshall (he of All the Stations fame) was invited to see what has been going on in and around London Bridge Station during the Christmas holdays by Network Rail. The visit was somewhat unusual - it was undertaken by helicopter. Watch the video below, and please feel free to leave a comment, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Hub in a Pub.

I took the photos above on Thursday, when I was a guest at the inaugural local small business advice and support event held in the newly opened Cross Keys Centre in Erith High Street. You may recall that back in the summer of 2010 the old Cross Keys Pub was invaded several times by a large group of travellers who rode ponies into the pub building on multiple occasions. The story made the national press, and for a while Erith got a reputation akin to the Wild West with outsiders thinking that this kind of behaviour was normal. Sense prevailed, and the Cross Keys lost its drinks licence, and it was compulsorily shut down. It stayed empty and abandoned for ages, but as I have recounted previously, international management consultancy the Aleff Group purchased the building and have been employing local contractors to extensively refurbish the locally listed building for multiple alternative uses. The building offers reasonably priced air conditioned meeting rooms and hot desking space for small local businesses, complete with WiFi and printing facilities. On top of this the presentation suite that you can see in the photos above will be open for community events - more details in the near future. It is hoped that local organisations such as the rotary club and Bexley College will also use the resources of the Cross Keys Centre. Local graphic design company IV.Q Branding and Design have relocated their offices from Redhill in Surrey to the Cross Keys Centre; in the top photo you can see IV.Q CEO Mark Smallcorn giving a very well received talk on what mistakes small business make in their graphic design policy and public image. In the second photo you can see Dr. Julian Hilton of the Aleff Group outlining their strategy to promote and support local small businesses. In the third photo you can see Dr. Malika Moussaid talking about their strategy to ensure the building gets wide community use. Over the next couple of months I will be covering this innovative and important new business and social resource in the centre of Erith in greater detail.

In the photo above, taken by Studio Coordinator Liam Hinds of IV.Q, you can see the group of local entrepreneurs, business leaders and executives who attended this first Cross Keys session; further events will be held throughout the year, and I will be featuring these in due course. If you look carefully, you may also spot yours truly in the shot. You can also see the custom made railings that have recently been fitted to the first floor balcony, including the iconic crossed keys logo. Eagle - eyed locals may recall that the last railings were made of wood, and ran horizontally. This is the only visual change to be made to the front of the building during the fastidious and very expensive restoration - and it was done due to changes in the health and safety laws; railings with horizontal elements are no longer allowed on balconies - as small children are able to climb up and over them - all railings must instead have vertical bars, which are far harder to climb over.

The campaign to save the Belvedere Splash Park has taken a new turn after a period of apparent inactivity; an online petition hosted by Change.Org has been started by the team behind the overall campaign. In three days they have already got over 2,000 signatures - whilst the Facebook site they set up a few months ago now has a total of just over five thousand members. There is going to be a protest at the Bexley Council meeting on Wednesday the 22nd April at 7.45pm. All concerned residents are encouraged to go along to the meeting to show their support for the retention of this important local facility. Some time ago Councillor Sawyer told the Save the Splash Park campaign that he did not recognise or accept petitions; it is now being reported that this is contrary to Bexley Council official policy which is to accept petitions. There seems to have been a misunderstanding on Councillor Sawyers behalf; either that or he has not been telling the truth - with the reputation for chicanery Bexley Council is already renown for, I know what version I believe to be more likely.

One story that started out as little more than a footnote on a couple of local news websites seems to have got a life and momentum of its own over the course of this week; Councillor Gareth Bacon has announced that he is renouncing his roles as deputy leader of Bexley Council, and cabinet member for finance and corporate services to concentrate on his position as chairman of the London Fire Authority. He will step down at the council’s annual meeting on May 20th, although he will remain a backbench councillor. The relevance of this will not be lost to anyone who is a regular reader of Malcolm Knight's excellent "Bexley is Bonkers" blog. 

Within an hour of publishing the Maggot Sandwich update last week, one of my very well – placed and reliable local informants sent me a copy of an Email that they had received concerning the possible future of the White Hart / Potion bar. As you may recall I expressed my concern that the place has been standing empty and unused for so long, and that it seemed like nobody wanted to take the place on, due mainly to the high cost of refurbishing the interior of the pub, installing a new kitchen and fume extraction system, and most importantly of all, the replacement of the hideous plate glass frontage which was illegally installed by the operators of Potion, despite explicit instructions to the contrary by Bexley Council planning department. Plans have been in place since the middle of 2011 to replace the current anachronistic pub frontage with a close replica of the original acid etched glass and salt glazed green tiles that the original Victorian design had. You can see the plan above – click on the picture to see a larger version. I can clearly recall the horror I felt when back in 2009 I was standing outside of the corner by Matalan, looking across the road to the White Hart as the criminals from Potion talked to the borough planning officer about the work that they were undertaking. I clearly heard the council official tell the crooks that they were to leave the existing White Hart pub sign in place, as it had historical and aesthetic significance. Literally moments after the planning officer drove off, one of the Potion workers got out a large angle grinder and cut down the protected sign and threw it into a nearby skip. From this point I knew Erith was in for trouble; sadly I was not wrong. After several years of drug dealing, fights, public drunkenness – and even a visit by Peter Andre, the venue closed after a series of enforcement notices by both Bexley Council and the Metropolitan Police. It was also convenient for the operators of Potion to declare themselves bankrupt, as it absolved them from having to restore the historic building frontage, as per two court orders that they successfully ignored. News now reaches me that something may finally be happening to the historic building – although the details are currently sketchy. My informant questioned the Development Control team at Bexley Council, and got this response “Discussions have taken place with the current owners regarding the outstanding enforcement notice requiring the reinstatement of a more historic frontage. I understand they are currently obtaining quotations for some of the replacement materials and mouldings that would be installed in the event that the application  for the pub front is successful. Whilst they are aware of the importance of this element they are  also reviewing the possibility of an application that includes a residential element on the site. I understand that the Local Authority may receive two applications by the end of the month the first being for the replacement of the historic pub frontage and the second possibly for a residential element on the site. The two applications would be mutually exclusive and looked at on their individual merits”. This strikes me as being both encouraging and worrying; OK, the restoration of the historic pub frontage is most definitely to be applauded, but I do get the impression that if a developer was to come along with an offer to convert the entire pub into flats, they would get a sympathetic hearing from the Council – after all, they are never ones to turn down an opportunity to rake in extra cash from council tax to feed their huge wage bill. Nevertheless, I feel that the White Hart (no longer the appalling Potion to my mind) needs to retain a public use in at very least part of the building. A restaurant would be nice – but I doubt the cost of conversion and upgrading the ground floor would make a restaurant financially viable. I would understand the upper floors being sympathetically converted for residential use, but the essence of the historic building needs to be retained. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com .

Every so often someone comes up with an invention or idea so simple, yet so elegant that I think “why didn't I think of that?” Recently the Bexley Times announced a scheme that is formally backed by Bexley Trading Standards Department. It is run by a commercial company called trueCall who market a range of smart devices designed to filter phone calls to remove nuisance messages from persistent PPI companies, debt consolidation organisations and energy suppliers. This information is then transferred back to other trueCall units that are part of the community, which are automatically updated to block those numbers using software containing a dynamic database called Community Blocking. Users can choose how they want to handle calls from Community Block list numbers.  For example, they can be intercepted, sent directly to the built-in answer machine or played a block message, such as: “We're not interested in your call – please hang up and don’t call us again”.  trueCall can even play the unobtainable tone so the call centre thinks that you have moved – this encourages them to delete your number from future campaigns. The Community Blocking software becomes smarter as more information is fed into it, and is a valuable line of defence against call centres that change the numbers from which they call. trueCall’s algorithms are designed to place more emphasis on recent blocked numbers, allowing it to quickly identify the latest numbers which are being used. true call  have been selling services along these lines for several years, and reports are that they are pretty successful. They have now introduced a new service which is stunningly simple, but very clever. People often find that when they try to complete online forms, such as for booking tickets, donating to charity, making a sales enquiry or obtaining an insurance quote, they are asked for their phone number. In reality there is no reason to provide a phone number. If the company needs to contact you they can email. Unfortunately, these online forms often cannot be completed unless a phone number is provided, even if you would prefer not to give it out. Personally my home phone number is known by perhaps a dozen people at most.  The beauty of the new service by trueCall is that they supply a phone number that you can input into any online forms in place of your own number. If you use 0333 88 88 88 88 instead of your own phone number,  when a call centre or other nuisance phones, they will then hear the announcement: “TrueCall38 is handling my calls. I prefer not to be contacted by phone, so please contact me via email address. Goodbye!” Very simple, but very effective. Do you have problems with nuisance calls? What do you do about it? I know someone who keeps a football whistle beside the phone – I am unsure how effective blowing it down the phone at the unwanted caller actually is, but I am sure it is very satisfying.

It is often difficult to recognise that we have a national arena almost on our doorstep; the O2 Arena in North Greenwich is pretty close by, and hosts all sorts of events, including a lot of concerts. For some reason it does feel a lot more remote than it actually is – mainly I feel due to the relatively poor public transport links from North Kent and South East London to the Arena. The only quick and relatively reliable method to get to the O2 Arena from Erith is to get the train from Erith station to Charlton, and then pick up the dedicated bus service from just outside the station. The bus journey takes about fifteen minutes – not too bad at all. Nevertheless many locals think that the O2 Arena is on the North side of the River Thames, as the cross river communication courtesy of the Jubilee Line tube is so excellent. Nevertheless, visitors from the area do visit the O2 Arena on occasions, and this week, guest contributor Dana Whiffen describes the 50^th anniversary concert for The Who at the venue recently. "The Who 50th Anniversary Concert at the O2 - 22/23rd March 2015 Review by Dana Wiffen. As the crowds made their way into the O2, looking around it was clear that there were many oldies like myself in the early sixties. I find it harder to motivate myself to go to large venues around London although once there I always enjoy myself. The audience cross section was of thirties couples and some grandparents with their grandchildren, as well as sixty and seventy plus followers. It was also quite clear that there were a large number drinking a lot It was also quite clear that there were a large number drinking a lot of alcohol, not only the younger ones either. Three guys next to where I was sitting arrived 'blotto' and one of them then fell asleep during Pinball Wizard which is one of their loudest songs. Call me Victor Meldrew if you like but I sometimes wonder what this country is coming to! Unlike the old-days and now in their seventies The Who were on stage prompt at 8pm, to a packed audience at this O2 concert, which was rescheduled from December 2014. Titled “Greatest Hits Tour” the band smashed straight into their hits, including all the well-known songs including Substitute, My Generation, I can see for Miles, Pinball Wizard and; Won’t Get Fooled Again, the last two songs probably receiving the loudest cheers. They added some songs that they had either not played for some time or in the case of 'Slip Kid' not at all, Slip Kid being on their album 'The Who by Numbers'. Other tracks that were seldom included in previous tours were my favourites The Seeker and Join Together and Pictures of Lilly. They also played for the first time for many years Pete Townshend’s early stab at a 'rock opera' originally written as a birthday present for their then manager Kit Lambert, called 'A quick one while he’s away' from their album 'A Quick One' and this also included a rarely heard song called 'Ivor the Engine Driver' followed later by 'So Sad' There were three songs from 'Tommy' and two from 'Quadrophenia', Two hours and ten minutes later they finished and it was time to leave. The O2 arena has numerous facilities outside and around it, including restaurants, bars, coffee shops, noodle bars and a bowling alley, not forgetting the smaller venue called the O2 Indigo. The Who are of course visibly looking older but aren't we all.?There is still the microphone twirling by Daltrey and the occasional windmill guitar playing from Townshend. They have a superb support band of six additional musicians including Pete’s younger brother Simon and Beatle Drummer - Ringo Starr’s son Zak on drums who was taught to play by Keith Moon. This was the first of two nights at the O2, before a midweek concert at The Royal Albert Hall as part of a week-long series of concerts for The Teenage Cancer Trust, before they are off to North America next month, which will be their last full tour. They are promising to still play one off dates and a new album.  They are also headlining a concert at Hyde Park on 26th June which includes Paul Weller, The Kaiser Chiefs and Johnny Marr amongst others". Thanks Dana - excellent stuff. 

I feel a rant coming on; I have not had one for quite a while – but there is a subject I feel is hiding in plain sight – so called “Clickbait” – websites that exist only to get as many visits as possible to increase the rates that they can charge for online advertising. You often find photos at the bottom of the page on some relatively otherwise reputable websites with titles such as “Hurry up before this video gets banned”, “Eat this and never diet again”, “Rich people try anything to ban this”, “Diet trick that melts fat like butter” and so on. You will have no doubt come across these many times before. You also get what appear to be ads personally directed at yourself. These have titles like “Moms in Dartford earn $30 an hour” – it does not take a genius to work out that an automated script on the web server looks at the I.P address of the incoming page request, does a basic lookup of the I.P address and where it is geographically located, then inserts the name of a nearby town to try and attract your attention. Obviously the word “Mom” instead of “Mum” and the dollar rate quoted give the game away. Clickbait is a pox on the web – if people did not click on the stories, the companies who run websites like Timetobreak.com and Healthymumdaily.com would go out of business. Not only do they fill your browser with annoying animated adverts, but some pages have code that hijacks your browser and takes you to other unwanted sites – Healthmumdaily.com also markets expensive, untested and quite possibly illegal diet pills and “miracle” slimming aids to gullible people with more money than sense. What amazes me is that these Click Baiters have used exactly the same techniques to elicit visits to their tawdry websites in exactly the same way for years; it seems like the techniques still work – as soon as they post an announcement along the lines of “you have to check this out before it is banned” (they love using the threat of something posted online being “banned”) – as to who or what could actually ban something is left unsaid for the reason that the whole thing is blatant tosh designed to farm clicks to create advertising revenue. In the graphic above you can see a typical “warning” message which was crafted to overcome the pop – up blocker in Google Chrome when a user clicked to shut the browser tab with the Clickbait page on it. This is just one of the less dodgy activities these scumbags get up to.  I visited a few Clickbait sites whilst researching this piece – so that you don’t have to do the same. Please leave them well alone. More on this subject next week - how Clickbait sites mislead and sometimes defraud the gullible.

A reminder that the 10th annual Bexley CAMRA Beer Festival will be taking place from the 23rd to the 25th April, at the Old Dartfordian's Sports Club in Bourne Road, Bexley Village. This festival will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of Bexley CAMRA. I will be going along on the evening of the 24th - generally the Friday session is regarded as the best time to attend. Do come and say "hello" if you see me - I shall be taking along my trusty camera to get some shots for the Maggot Sandwich. The two graphics above show the beer list for the festival - click on either for a larger view. I find one ale particularly intriguing - the arrestingly monickered "Nessun Korma" from the Loch Ness Brewery; it is described as "A curried stout - a Black and Tandoori if you will". It sounds vile, but I am certain that it will sell well - out of curiousity, if anything else. Interestingly the Indian Restaurants in the nearby Bexley Village always seem extra busy over the beer festival period.

Streaming ultra-high definition video could soon be significantly less of a burden on your home broadband network. As I have mentioned previously on the Maggot Sandwich, one of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption of the new 4K Ultra High Definition TV format has been the huge amount of data a 4K picture stream requires – something that most home broadband or fibre optic systems would seriously struggle to deal with - I have covered this issue in the past, and advised readers to steer clear of 4K televisions because of this limitation. Recently an announcement has been made which, if it lives up to the hype, could go a very long way to solving this problem. This will be due to a new method of compressing data that can reduce the size of 4K video files without a noticeable depreciation in footage quality. The technology, which has been developed by a company called V-Nova, uses around fifty per cent of the space currently needed by existing 4K formats. V-Nova has roused interest amongst the telecoms and broadcasting industry, with twenty large companies now backing the technology, including Sky, Intel, and the European Broadcasting union. The actual compression method is called ‘Perseus’, and could potentially see the average UK home broadband connection become capable of handling three simultaneous 4K streams. At present, the average UK home data network – that’s a speed of around 22Mbps - can only facilitate a single UHD stream, because the high-quality footage demands such vast amounts of bandwidth. Netflix currently recommends a steady 25Mbps (Megabits Per Second) broadband connection to utilise its 4K streaming service, while analysis shows that between 12-16Mbps is typically required. According to V-Nova, its Perseus technology can offer the same picture quality, albeit using network speeds of just 7-8Mbps. Media expert Ian Maude, from Enders Analysis, said: “This is cutting-edge technology that will be welcomed by pay TV companies, and TV manufacturers because it will help drive 4K sales; but there are still limiting factors to the take-up of 4K including whether networks are capable of meeting demand, having a device able to display an ultra-high definition picture, and the amount of content currently being shot in 4K. Ultra HD will still remain niche for some time but this technology will help.” V-Nova claims that the compression technology will also make it easy to stream Full HD 1080p footage to mobile devices, by bringing bandwidth usage down to a similar level needed to play music. UK content distributors and broadcasters, meanwhile, will begin utilising the technology ‘before the end of this year’. My guess is that Sky will launch a dedicated 4K service that will require a new set – top box incorporating the Perseus codec in some kind of dedicated processor. Knowing Sky’s normal business strategy, I think that they will sell the boxes pretty much at cost – not more than £200, but recoup their huge investment in 4K subscription fees. What is not known is how many of the Sky satellite fleet have transponders capable of handling 4K data streams, even if they do feature this revolutionary new method of data compression?

The ending video is a piece of film showing the exhibitors at the 2015 Erith Model Railway Exhibition. Erith Model Railway Society meet Founded in June 1962, the Erith Model Railway Society (or EMRS for short) has been in existence for more than fifty years. It is very friendly and informal in nature, and comprises people engaged in modelling railways in most scales including N, HO, OO and O. As well as modelling railways, the society holds an annual modelling contest and many social events. Members' families are more than welcome to attend any EMRS-organised events such as dinners, Christmas and summer celebrations, held at a local family restaurant, pub or club, visits to prototype railways and rail-tours. The society meets every Wednesday evening from 7:00pm up to 10:00pm at their dedicated clubroom in Belvedere Working Men's Club, Invicta House, 66 Gilbert Road, Belvedere, Kent, DA17 5DA. They are in the enviable position of not having to share their facilities with anybody else, so the rooms are potentially available every day of the week. Some of the members also meet on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7:00pm up to 10:00pm to work on the various club layouts that they are currently building.

Are you the Vicar?

I took the photo above (click on it for a larger view) whilst helping out at the Christmas Tree Festival held at Christ Church Erith. The vent raises a substantial amount of money for a number of good causes, including Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice. Eighty decorated Christmas trees filled the church and hundreds of people visited from as far away as Milton Keynes over the course of the weekend. Additionally there was a charity sale in the church hall, which was also very well attended; I noted that the kitchen was doing a roaring trade in not only teas and coffees, but also hot sausage sandwiches and bacon rolls. It is just a pity that I am pork intolerant and could not partake. Whilst handing out publicity leaflets for the Friends Of Christ Church Erith (FOCCE), I was approached by a lady who asked me "Are you the Vicar?" Which I must admit that I found highly amusing. 

You may recall that back in March I wrote in some depth about the problem of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT). Betting shops are now making a significant proportion of their profits from these devices, on which a gambler can lose £100 in less than thirty seconds. The machines have been called “ the crack cocaine of gambling”. In  the 55 most deprived boroughs in the UK – overwhelmingly located in Northern cities and urban Greater London have a  total of 2,691 bookmakers shops, in which £13 billion was gambled on FOBT machines, and £470 million lost by gamblers in the last year alone. The large betting companies have targeted the poorest areas that have the highest unemployment, lowest per capita income and higher crime rates. The last year has also seen a large increase in the number of high street betting shops, mainly due to the leap in the total number of FOBT machines, such as digital roulette in use. In December 2013 there was a total of 9,343 active betting shop licences in the entire United Kingdom, which was an increase of 280 since 2012. The most deprived town council in the UK was identified as being Liverpool. A total of £118 million was gambled in 570 machines, and £23 million was siphoned off by bookmakers in the process. A report was published this Wednesday by The Responsible Gambling Trust that said more than a third of the people who play high speed, high stakes Fixed Odds Betting Terminals have problems with their gambling. The researchers found that 37% of respondents experience “problems with machine gambling” somewhere between “some of the time” to “almost always”. This compares to a problem gambling rate of 0.4% for all adults, according to 2012 government health studies. The Responsible Gambling Trust also found that the players who frequent the UK’s 9,343 betting shops were likely to be poor, jobless and not white. Bookmakers rely on the revenue from the country’s machines, which take £1.5bn from punters. Campaigners point out that the data showed that these problem gamblers were depositing huge amounts of cash – £1,200 a week – into the machines. This from a group where a third of men had incomes of less than £10,400 a year. The money has to be coming from somewhere other than their pay packets; gambling industry analysts suspect that a portion of the money gambled on FOBT machines is from the proceeds of organised crime, and that crooks are using the terminals to launder dirty money. For some reason central government don’t appear willing to legislate against these machines (the cynic in me thinks that the amount of tax that they receive from the gambling industry might well be behind their reticence). This has meant that local councils are forced into setting rules; Newham Council has been in the forefront of such local action; they are proposing imposing a £2 per throw maximum gambling stake, with a £100 maximum pay out – the same as is already in place with conventional “one armed bandits”. There would also be a compulsory warning displayed on screen if any gambler spent more than thirty minutes using the FOBT machines. The book makers vigorously oppose this, as FOBT’s make up such a significant proportion of their revenue stream. Personally I fail to see the attraction of bookmaker’s shops, but it would seem that many do; when I walk past those in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, they always seem to have a steady stream of willing customers, though one does seem to see the same faces week after week.

At long last local authorities have got powers to issue fines to people who spit in public.  After a meeting of council leaders on Thursday, and agreement has been reached by the London Councils’ transport and environment committee. It will now not be long before someone caught spitting in public will potentially be issued with an £80 fixed penalty notice, which will be reduced to £50 if paid within fourteen days. Personally I find the practice of spitting abhorrent and I welcome the new measures, though I do wonder how they will be enforced – it will not make a lot of difference if the new regulations are treated like the regulation banning the use of handheld mobile phones whilst driving – something so widely flouted as to be a toothless and rarely enforced law. No doubt time will tell.

I took the photo above at the Christmas Tree Festival that I mentioned earlier; it shows Erith resident and Scottish Piper Chic Mackie in full flow, piping the visitors into the church hall for the charity sale. Chic is a fascinating person with a very interesting history. He will be guest writing a piece for the Maggot Sandwich in the near future - watch this space.

I have been walking around various shopping centres, vainly trying to get inspiration for Christmas. One thing I have noticed in the technology retailers such as Curry’s and John Lewis’s TV department are heavily promoting 4K ultra high definition televisions over standard HD, which they intimate is now becoming old hat. The problem, as I have written before is that there is very little native 4K content available, and not much chance that Sky, Virgin, or even the humble Beeb will offer 4K content in the foreseeable future. The only alternative to get 4K quality content is to stream over the web (presupposing you have a high speed, low latency fibre broadband connection – bog standard over copper wire ADSL will not be fast enough for a smooth experience with 4K – video will pause and flicker, and freeze whilst content is caching – think what standard video was like on a PC back in the days of dial – up internet connections). If you do have a fast connection, that is not the end of your 4K streaming woes. The slow march of 4K content availability across 2014, combined with the steadily dropping prices for 4K televisions, has finally reached a point where people with regular-sized wallets may be considering an upgrade for the living room. Unfortunately, as more services roll out support for streaming 4K content, it is becoming increasingly clear that none of the boxes currently sat under your TV such as a PS4, Xbox One or Netflix receiver are going to be able to handle those streams. As the most recent supporter of 4K streaming, Amazon’s new page for their 4K Prime Instant Video service lists thirty four televisions that will be able to play 4K streams. A quick look over at Netflix reveals a similar set of televisions that will support this feature. What is not made clear, though, is that these televisions will be handling those streams through the Amazon application that is built into the TV, and for right now those native apps will be the only way to get 4K content. The industry explanation regarding the technology needed to make everything work, is that the current HDMI 1.4 specification is insufficient to support 4K streaming. According to Amazon, HDMI 1.4 “doesn’t support the security requirements that the studios require for the delivery of 4K.” Since the studios are a fairly important part of this equation, Amazon and Netflix need to work closely with the studios in order to stream this content. Unfortunately, the number of devices you can buy right now that support HDMI 2.0 are nearly zero. The specification is very new, which is why Sony and Microsoft didn't include it in their game consoles, and according to the people who built the specification, there is currently no system in place for any company to upgrade 1.4 to 2.0 because most conversions would require a hardware upgrade and firmware updates. It is likely that we'll see plenty of hardware in 2015 to address this, but for the time being you are stuck using the 4K applications that are built into your television. The means no Kinect voice commands, no instant loading from Amazon’s Fire TV, and a Roku remote will probably start collecting dust as more 4K content becomes available. It means those smart TVs that record your activity and dial home to the vendor about it will have a record of your viewing history. Most importantly, it means you are going to need to spend even more money if you want to go back to the way you are currently streaming content if you want it in 4K. All in all, as I wrote a while ago, save your money; if you must have a new television for Christmas, just buy a cheap standard HD telly for a few hundred quid for now, and wait until both the HDMI 2.0 standard has fully rolled out, and when more 4K content is actually available. At present 4K is very much “The Emperor’s New Clothes”.

The swingeing cuts imposed by Bexley Council are now biting services even harder; the following letter was sent to all parents of children who are members of Erith and District Swimming Club (EDSC):-

To: All EDSC Members.

It is with much sadness that I write to let you know that from the end of December 2014 and after some 102 years, Erith and District Swimming Club will no longer be running Beginners and Improvers classes in the teaching pool as part of our swimming programme. This change has been forced upon us by Bexley Council’s leisure facilitator, Parkwood Leisure.  Their 30 year contract to run the Council’s Leisure Centre’s, (which has 22 years remaining), gives them the right to run all swimming lessons at the 3 Bexley Borough Centres and having left us alone for the last 8 years they are now enforcing this right. We have been allowed to continue to run our Sunday afternoon programme of lessons.  These lessons will be for swimmers who can swim and are looking to improve aspects of their swimming to enable them to reach the standard required for them to enter into our Competitive Squad System.  If your son / daughter are affected by this change then Miranda Jaiteh and I will talk with you individually to ensure that you find a way to continue with your their lessons. Miranda will continue in her role as Head Teacher and will be working with the swimmers in the Sunday afternoon classes. As always, should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via e-mail – john@edsc.org.uk

I have come to a conclusion; what actually is the function of a local council? Is it the traditional role of ensuring the council tax money is responsibly collected, spent and accounted for to ensure that the residents and visitors to the borough find clean, well – lit streets, decent car parking and disabled access, and a range of support, advice and recreation services, or is it to fund exceedingly well pad “jobs for the boys (and girls)” in senior council executive positions, and to ensure that the senior executives get shielded from the inevitable backlash from embittered and angry local residents, who after all end up paying for it all. I will leave that judgement up to the reader. It does seem that Bexley Council do whatever else you may feel have a very skewed sense of priorities – they spend fortunes making expensive and ill – thought out changes to the pedestrian areas of Sidcup, Bexleyheath and Northumberland Heath, which even the locals find baffling and for a large part a waste of time and money. They then undertake a hugely unpopular project to close Belvedere Splash Park for reasons which are mostly little more than sensationalist fiction – incorrectly assuming that locals would be stupid enough to fall for the blatant propaganda that spews forth from the Watling Street Junta. I would elucidate further, but certain members of Bexley Council Executive Committee don’t understand metaphor, and certainly lack even a basic background in English classic literature, so my musings would be lost on the target audience I am afraid.

Some enterprising local person has set up a new business. Delivery Busters is a service by which you can get fast food, groceries, drinks and tobacco delivered directly to your door within an hour. The service works by collecting goods from a supplier / retailer and delivering them to the customer for a fee which is based on the distance covered. Delivery Busters also will collect pre – paid electricity keys from the customer, get them charged and then returned for use. The fees that Delivery Busters charge are lower than that of a cab service, and for someone without a car, or who has had a couple of drinks and is worried that they would be over the blood alcohol limit if they did drive, it would make a lot of sense. The Delivery Busters website is slick and well designed, although it would seem to me to be a one person operation. Under their testimonials page there are a couple of quotations which if I were in charge of the brand, I would think twice about publishing:- “It was Friday night and we were all pissed… and we ran out of alcohol and fags. We got delivery busters to bring all our alcohol, vodka, Jack Daniels, and ciggies. We all were too pissed to drive really so it’s great to have delivery busters around”. Another writes “I was seriously craving a McDonald’s breakfast, but was soooo hung over from an explosive party the night before and my head was simply spinning so there was no way I was going out to get it myself. Lucky for me, I called up delivery busters and they got my food to me in no time”. Neither quote really reflects the kind of values a respectable company would wish to promote – whatever the reality. I would guess that their everyday work would probably come from requests of this nature, rather than from another satisfied customer, who wrote “All I needed was some bread, eggs, milk and toilet roll. I don't drive, I have 2 kids and the nearest shop is 35 minutes’ walk away. It would cost me £10 to use the taxi there and back. Delivery busters sorted it for me for a fiver. I use them regularly now when I am stuck“. There is a concern over this kind of service, and I have to say right now that I am not a lawyer, and have not received any legal training, so my view may well be factually inaccurate. I am of the view that reselling tobacco and alcohol without a licence may well be an offence, albeit a somewhat technical one. Delivery Busters buy the goods from the vendor, then sell them on to the end user with the addition of a delivery fee. This would seem to me to be something that if I was running the service, I would want to get a competent legal opinion on from a solicitor with retail and licensing experience before I made the decision to deliver alcohol and tobacco. My only other concern is the “guerrilla advertising” that Delivery Busters use. They are currently fly posting adverts and stickers on bus stops and public notice boards around the local area – something the hoarding operators take an exceedingly dim view of. These issues aside, it would seem that Delivery Busters are providing a much needed service in an innovative and imaginative manner. It may well be that Delivery Busters are in the vanguard of a new kind of service based business; it would not be the first time that a real business innovation would have its’ genesis in the area. I recall that back in the late 1980’s if you wanted a take away meal of any type, you had to go out and collect it yourself – Chinese, Indian, Fish and Chips, Pizza – there was none of the “delivered to your door" malarkey that you get nowadays. A bright spark in the back streets of Plumstead came up with a new, and for that time revolutionary food service. It was an Indian food outlet that consisted just of a kitchen and a few delivery drivers – they had no shop for customers to visit at all. Instead customers phoned through their order and it was delivered to their door shortly thereafter. The name of this then revolutionary company was “Hurry Curry”.  They did very well for a couple of years, but soon thereafter the ordinary takeaways caught on to this, and introduced their own delivery services, and Hurry Curry ended up quietly expiring. I have many fond memories of 1987 and 1988, sitting in the Radio Lumberjack studio in Bexleyheath, and eating a Hurry Curry prepared Chicken Vindaloo, Mushroom Rice and Garlic Naan whilst presenting the original Maggot Sandwich – my pirate radio show on Saturday evenings; and talking of pirate radio – who says that I don't plan these things?

Over the past couple of years or so, I have been running an ongoing feature bringing lesser known radio stations to Maggot Sandwich readers attention; there are a number of other such stations I may well mention in the future, but I thought this week I would highlight another radio phenomenon – the weekend hobby radio pirates. These stations come on air sporadically for a few hours, usually on a Saturday night or Sunday morning, almost certainly broadcast from the operators’ spare bedroom or garden shed. They usually broadcast on Shortwave, and probably only have audiences numbering in the couple of dozen. Nevertheless there are a number of people who have made it their hobby to monitor and record when these stations come on air, and what content they broadcast. The transmitters these pirates use are usually either homemade, or heavily modified amateur radio equipment, re tuned to work on the broadcast radio bands, rather than the legally allocated amateur radio spectrum. The Christmas holiday period tends to bring these hobby pirates out of the closet and onto the airwaves. These pirates operate pretty much with impunity nowadays – back in the 1980’s at the height of land based pirate radio activity, enforcement was a lot more rigorous, when the likes of the infamous Eric Gotts of the DTI Radio Investigation Service would be chasing round the country, eager to feel a few collars and confiscate an illicit transmitter. Nowadays things are a lot less strict; the Radio Investigation Service is no more – it was subsumed into OFCOM some years ago. Nowadays unless an unlicensed transmission is causing interference with a licensed service, or someone complains, there is a very slim chance that OFCOM would take any action. In other European countries, the situation is different – in the Netherlands for example, penalties for unlicensed broadcasting are pretty strict, with fines and the confiscation of equipment being normal upon conviction. Whatever the penalties, the number of such stations has remained pretty constant for years. You can read more about them, and what radio frequencies you can find them on, and when here. You can see a daily updated log of stations here. Have a look and let me know what you think. There are also a very small number of full - time Shortwave radio stations in Europe that operate 24/7 outside of government control. There is the quirky commercial station Radio 700 in Belgium, which transmits locally on FM, but also has a shortwave transmitter. There is also the Netherlands based commercial Shortwave station KBC Radio, which I have examined in the past. Lastly there is also the long running pirate station Laser Hot Hits, which I will be covering in more detail in a week or two.

Last week I wrote about the historic connection that both Erith and Crayford have with the armaments industry; I explained how over a hundred years ago the Vickers Maxim company produced the first really effective squad machine guns, and these had a devastating effect on not only the First World War, but also in many later conflicts. It is said that Vickers machine guns have killed more people than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs combined. Here is a short video showing a Vickers machine gun in action on a shooting range. Fortunately in this case only paper targets are involved. Feel free to comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.