Mobo Toys.

The recent freezing and very windy weather does not appear to have deterred the people who regularly fish off Erith Pier, as you can see in the photo above - click on it for a larger view. Some nights you can see small tents camped on the dogleg part of the structure, where the tent owners are night fishing. It takes a particularly dedicated and hardy person to camp out on the pier in freezing conditions, as the wind coming up the river from the coast has come directly from Siberia. Personally I would rather be inside the warmth of Pewty Acres, with a mug of something hot, but I suppose that it takes all types - good luck to them. If you want to find out precisely what the local weather is like, there is an excellent interactive website belonging to local resident Bob Hewitt. He has a web enabled weather station which gives 24/7 weather readings. I view it several times a day, and it is more reliable and accurate than the BBC or Met Office websites. Give it a try and see what you think.

Major changes were made to Abbey Wood Station this week; the London – bound platform has been relocated to a new track specially laid for the purpose. Travellers now get onto the train from the right, rather than the left hand side in the direction of travel. I must admit that the change rather startled me when I passed through on my way to Greenwich, then on to Canary Wharf on Monday morning; I knew the works were to take place, but not exactly when. The Dartford bound track remains as before. The reason for the track and platform changes are to enable further construction work on the new Crossrail (now officially named the Elizabeth Line) / North Kent Line station and interchange to be undertaken. The very nature of Abbey Wood around the station is changing – what was a fairly comfortable, if a little worn around the edges area is getting  a pretty impressive makeover. I get the feeling the property developers are going to be targeting the Plumstead / Abbey Wood / Thamesmead area in order to tempt Londoners from less affordable parts of the capital to relocate to an area that is going to be at the heart of a major new transport hub. I feel that the days of our little part of South East London / North Kent being a bastion of (relatively) affordable housing are shortly to come to an end. Not so bad if you have a house already, but for those trying got get on the property ladder, it will be a nightmare. I know that I could not afford to buy Pewty Acres today, as it has gone up in value by roughly six times since I bought the place twenty years ago. What may happen in the future as Crossrail opens is up for speculation, but I get the distinct feeling the whole area could well suffer a mini property boom. 

Bexley Council have, as was widely anticipated, rubber – stamped the permanent closure of Belvedere Splash Park. You can read a detailed account of the events that took place on Monday evening at the council meeting that was convened to make the closure proclamation here on Bexley is Bonkers. Councillors did announce that the recreation park on the opposite side of Woolwich Road would not be sold off for development, as had been widely feared, and I have previously reported. That may be for now. But personally I would not trust the planning committee to speak my weight, let alone stick to a promise not to sell off the valuable triangle of open space in a prime location, which would be worth a considerable fortune, both in direct land sales, and in revenue from council tax once flats had been built on the site. Mark my words – this one is going to rear its ugly head again in the future. Just because they say now they are not selling it off, does not mean that it is permanently off the cards.  It is my opinion that Bexley Council would sell the gold from their parents teeth if they thought they could get away with it.

Many regular readers will be aware of my personal antipathy towards mobile phones. I don’t have one, and don’t find it to be a problem. Apart from the privacy and security concerns I have with mobile phone technology, I also have long been of the opinion that they are hazardous to health. Some years ago, a dear friend of mine died of maxillofacial cancer which spread to his spine. He was a very heavy mobile phone user, and his specialist was of the opinion that microwave radiation from his mobile phone was a key contributory factor to the cancer. Now a study has been published which finds a definite link to mobile phone usage and male fertility. Men who keep their mobile phones in their trouser pockets or on bedside tables at night may be damaging their chances of having children. The results of the academic study found that sperm levels and fertility fell in men who kept a mobile phone in their pockets during the day, or in close proximity at night. It seems that the mobile phone signal “cooks” the sperm in certain circumstances. The Times reported earlier this week that Gedis Grudzinskas, a fertility consultant at St. George’s Hospital, London said “Men need to think about their wellbeing and try to stop being addicted to their mobile phones. If you wear a suit to work, put the mobile in your chest pocket instead of close to your testes. It will reduce the risk of your sperm count dropping, or dropping so much. Do you need to keep the phone right next to you on the bedside table? Some men keep their shorts or pyjamas in bed – is that really necessary?” The study, which was carried out in Israel suggested that talking regularly on a mobile phone for more than an hour a day, and talking on the phone whilst it was being charged (the power lead acts like a leaky feeder and re – radiates the signal) effectively doubled the chances of lower sperm concentration. It also indicated that sperm concentration decreased to an abnormal level in men who carried their mobile phone less than 50 centimetres (20 inches) from the groin. An abnormal level of sperm concentration was found in 47.1 percent of men who carried their phones at a close distance, compared with 11.1 percent in the general male population. This is thought to be caused by a heating of the sperm from the phone’s electromagnetic activity. The study is published in the prestigious journal “Reproductive Biomedicine” and will no doubt fuel fears that a link between declining rates of fertility in men and the prevalent use of mobile phones because of the radio frequency electromagnetic radiation emitted by the devices. This finding backs up a study undertaken by the University of Exeter in 2014 which also found that using mobile phones reduced men’s sperm numbers and activity when mobile phones were kept in trouser pockets. That study also advised that nobody, male or female should use a mobile phone whilst it was being charged, as the exposure to microwave RF fields was greatly increased as the charger lead acted as an antenna. I would imagine that this will soon make the mainstream press – though I somehow doubt that it will drastically alter the behaviour of many mobile phone users. It took decades of campaigning to persuade many of the general public of the dangers of smoking. I feel that we may have a similar uphill battle to inform and educate people in respect of mobile phone usage. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The former Homeleigh Care Home is about to become a hostel for homeless people, as I have covered in the past. The rumours that circulated on social media that the home was to become a refuge for fifty Syrian families were simply untrue, and started by Neo Nazis. Personally, if someone had genuinely fled war - torn Syria with their family to find refuge in the UK, I would have no problem with this whatsoever. Syria is a strife torn hell - hole that I would find intolerable if I was unfortunate enough to be stuck there myself. The fact remains the former care home is going to be used to house indigenous homeless people. I think this is a pretty pragmatic use for the building in the short to medium term. Let's see how things pan out over the next couple of years. 

The News Shopper have been featuring a story which is the product of a typical public relations company. As I have previously mentioned, I receive almost daily emails from PR companies promoting all sorts of products and services, many of which really don’t deserve to see the light of day. Not that most PR companies care – as long as the client pays their fees, they will cheerfully plug all sorts of tat to Joe Public, via bloggers and social media pundits. I merely stay on various Email lists as very occasionally I will receive something that might be of interest to my readers. This week a PR company has made an announcement that Erith is one of the best towns to live in when one needs to commute into London. I thought this statement was interesting, but deserved some scrutiny. The press release states “Totally Money's new property ladder calculation tool helps those looking to move out of the City find their perfect home - by comparing travel time, the cost of commuting, the most desirable towns, and house prices.  The Bexley town ranked an impressive seventh in the list - with the lowest average house price of £238,459.  Erith commuters tend to pay £1,912 for their season tickets into London, spend 44 minutes travelling to work, and have an average disposable income of £21,539 per head per year.  Head of brand and communications at TotallyMoney.com Joe Gardiner said: Living a short commute outside of London has always been a popular choice for many working in the capital, both for financial and lifestyle reasons.  "Finally there is a useful tool to help simplify the decision process.". The facts regarding the story seem mostly consistent, with the notable exception of the figure of £21, 539 as the average disposable income. This seems exceedingly on the high side. I get the feeling that they may have taken the average local complete income, rather than the level of disposable income; I earn comfortably over the national average income, but my disposable income is certainly not the kind of figure they mention. PR companies quite often don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. I would agree that if, like me, you need to commute into central London, there are a lot worse places to live than Erith. It is (for the time being) relatively affordable – with the caveat I mentioned earlier.

The Police carried out an anti-weapons sweep in Erith last Saturday; Unsurprisingly they found a large knife with a serrated blade, which had been left in the piece of scrubland behind Erith Health Centre. The small patch of land is more commonly used by impatient individuals as an al fresco toilet. The knife has been sent for forensic examination to determine whether it has been used in any crime.

Recently I have had a couple of conversations relating to Mobo Toys, and their part in the history of Erith. The following history has been compiled from a number of sources. The company had a very strong manufacturing presence in the town for many years. David Sebel had emigrated from Russia circa 1912 and set up in partnership as a Wheelwright in East London in 1921. In 1928 he moved the Company to Lant Street in Borough, London S.E.1 with the takeover of a firm, Hazeldine and Norton, of Wheelwright’s and Motor Body and Van Builders. Interestingly the house next to the premises had been the residence of Charles Dickens when his parents were in the Marshalsea Debtor’s Prison. In the 1930’s they expanded into Architectural metalwork and other engineering projects. Also producing street cleaning carts, milk churns and fronts for Cinemas. In 1931 Harry Sebel, David’s son, joined the firm starting from the bottom up. During the Second World War the Company turned over to war work and several local premises were used for their production of aircraft and tank components, bunks for air raid shelters, bailey bridge components and even a tower for an experimental radar station. In the early 1940’s Harry was looking to the future, and realised that there would be a need to expand the company and find work for the existing workforce and those which had been called up. After much research it was decided to go into metal furniture, under the Trade name Stak-a-Bye, and also into the toy business. But what to make which would be different from anyone else. Harry had the idea of a Rocking Horse which the rider could propel along themselves. Basic plans were drawn up and a full size horse mockup was made using bicycle gears. To get an idea of what the finished product would look like a Taxidermist in Piccadilly was approached for a horse hide, the only thing he had was from a Zebra so that was used. The prototype Zebra was still around at the Erith factory for several years. A Patent was taken out in 1942 for the basic mechanism. Later Charles Morewood, RA was commissioned to sculpt the clay body of what became the Mobo Bronco. The steel furniture business was set up in 1946 from the Weller Street side of the premises, a name which was used at the Erith factory to denote the furniture production building. The Lant Street premises were not going to be big enough for the toy and furniture business envisaged and so the ex Vickers Gun Works at 177, West Street, Erith were purchased in February, 1947. As the intention was to produce everything in-house from the arrival of the raw material to the finished product, the full kitting out of the factory with large presses, dip tanks, spray booths, etc. took a while. Toy production did not start at Erith until September, 1947. However, some toys had been assembled at Lant Street SE1, produced by outside contractors, to enable a display at the British Industries Fair in May, 1947. The other toys on show were Merry Go Round, Rocker Swing, Chair Desk and Roll-a-Bye Skates. The name ‘Mobo’ came from a brainstorming session when ‘Mobile Toys’ had been rejected. The clown on the decal was due to an interest in the Circus by the David Sebel. The Circus theme was used in a lot of their Exhibition Stands and advertising. A tin clown was designed but never went into production. It would have been very similar to an early Action Man! Later advertising and instruction sheets used the Mobo title as two characters ‘Mr Mo’ and ‘Miss Bo’. The most well known toy is the Bronco, the ride-on horse. It works by the rider sitting on the horse and pushing down on the stirrups, then releasing them and then the horse moves along. From 1947 to 1950 the Bronco could only be steered in a straight line, but in February, 1950 Magic Steering was introduced. This enabled the rider by pushing on either stirrup to move the horse in that direction. The Bronco was so popular that it stayed in production until 1971. The body pressings were also used for a series of other toys; the Spring Horse, Night Rider (nothing to do with the David Hasselhoff TV show from the 1980's), Prairie Prancer, Range Rider - two different types produced, Rocking Horse, and the Bronco Merry Go Round. The toy colours came from ‘market research’ with the local school children at West Street School – yellow and red being the favourite. These children were also used for photo shoots for advertising and testing the toys, as was famously covered by a 1952 Pathe Newsreel which you can see by clicking here. In 1949, the Walking Snail was introduced at the New York Toy Fair, also at the same fair the ‘Pony’ was first shown. The ‘Pony’ pressings went on to be used on several different toys. 1948 also saw the introduction of the first small remote control walking toy – the Toy - Toise. This was a great success not just for children, but also adults, as they were used for Toy-Toise races at many parties. The American Market was an amazing success for the Mobo Company. In 1948 they exported to the USA half of the total toy exports of all British Toy Companies. At this time Britain was recovering from the Second World War, and steel was rationed according to the amount of goods exported. Mobo never had any trouble obtaining supplies because of their excellent export record. A New York office had been opened in 1948 at the Breslin Building, Broadway, New York and an American subsidiary formed Sebel Products Inc. Other major markets were Australia and South Africa. A Showroom and Office had been opened at 39/41 New Oxford Street, London W.C.1 in September, 1945. Other toys produced included Prams, Bicycles, Desks, Wheelbarrows, Rockers, Swings, Scooters and, from 1956, Pedal Cars. In 1951 Harry and David emigrated to Australia and set up a factory at Bankstown, Sydney. Here they produced both Toys and Furniture. The components were shipped from Erith and assembled and painted at Bankstown. The Australian company decided in 1957 to concentrate on the furniture business and so toy production was stopped. The furniture business still goes on today as part of the GWA International Group, and they have recently opened a branch in the United Kingdom. In 1955 the Toy Boat business of Harold Flory Ltd., of Bromley, Kent was taken over. They produced the Snipe, and Swift  Motor Boats, the Sprite Yacht, and the Snort Submarine, also Toy Cars. The boats were continued in production by Mobo. Jetex, the Model Aircraft Engine business, was purchased in 1956. Besides a range of Jet propelled engines they also produced model kits for aircraft and a plastic boats and cars for the Jetex engine. The mid 1960’s saw an introduction of toys made from injection moulded plastic and the importation of a range of plastic Pedal cars from Pines of Italy. These included a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Pedal Car. A range of bicycles was also imported from Italy. By the late 1960s the British toy industry was having a difficult time due to cheap imports from the Far East. When John Bentley of Barclay Securities made an offer to purchase the Company in 1970 it was taken up. The Barclay Toy Group was formed to which Chad Valley, Charles Methuen and Tri-ang were added in 1971. Unfortunately the overheads of the Group meant that losses were still being made and a major reorganisation took place in 1972 with the Erith Works being closed and all production of all Mobo Toys ceasing. The site is now a large housing estate. Mobo toys now change hands for serious money on online auction sites like Ebay. There is also a dedicated Mobo toy sales and exchange website that you can visit by clicking here. If you have any memories that you would like to share about Mobo toys, or possibly having worked at the factory, do either leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo above shows Erith railway station in the Spring of 1969, with a train waiting at the Dartford bound platform. What strikes me about the historic photo is how much more industrialised Erith was back then. A photograph taken from the same location now would show a far more residential environment in the background. A fascinating glimpse of the not so distant past. 

Criminals across London could be made to wear "sobriety tags" when they are convicted of alcohol-fuelled offences. The Ministry of Justice said it is extending the scheme throughout the capital after a pilot. It targets those whose drinking played a part in crimes. Courts can ban offenders from consuming alcohol and fit them with an ankle bracelet which monitors their sweat. If alcohol is detected, the individual can be returned to court to face further sanctions. The trouble with these tags is that they are very easily evaded or fooled, making the whole scheme a nonsense. The Ministry of Justice said that in the pilot scheme, there was a ninety two percent compliance scheme. What this actually means is that eight percent of offenders fitted with the sobriety tags were too thick to figure out how to circumvent it. A piece of plastic bag, or a cut - up rubber glove slid between the sensor on the tag and the offender's skin stops the sensor from detecting alcohol in the blood without triggering the sensor to think it has been removed (a drop in body temperature measured by the sensor). This is all very basic stuff - but it seems to have completely bypassed the Ministry of Justice in their ivory towers, eager to believe anything the private firm who will be running the project and supplying the sobriety tags tell them. What do you think? Drop me a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The ending video this week features the Transport for London Lost Property Office. It makes for very interesting viewing indeed - I had no idea quite how much stuff people lose when travelling in and around London on public transport - see what you think?

Clean for the Queen.

It is nice to begin on some good news this week; the photo above shows part of the main concourse in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. An announcement this week by Barry Owen, the manager of the shopping centre said that sales were up markedly on the same period last year. A greater footfall through the centre had also been recorded - more visitors will encourage more retailers to open outlets in the centre - as previously mentioned, I have it on good authority that Subway will soon be opening a branch, and the much loved Mambocino coffee shop / cafe will be expanding into a second unit so that it will be able to open for "sit down" meals in the evening - something currently sadly lacking in Erith. All in all things are looking good; hopefully the remaining unlet units will soon be occupied. 

Belvedere Splash Park was one of the largest free wet play parks in the country, with a lagoon surrounding a desert island and a mini-‘beach’, equipped with water sprinklers, showers, bubble jets and sprays. Parents brought their children from a very wide area to the park during the summer months; it was incredibly popular and very well used. The Splash Park was one recreational feature which brought many people to Upper Belvedere who might otherwise not visit the village. The Splash Park has been under threat for a couple of years now, and it would seem that even though a concerted and well organised campaign to preserve the park has been for nothing. Many observers, myself included were of the opinion that Bexley Council do everything possible to do exactly what they always intended to do despite so – called “consultation” – the Bexley Council motto of “Listening to you, Working for you” is laughably ironic. It is pretty certain that the Splash Park will not be refurbished – the final decision will be taken at a council meeting on Monday evening, well after the Maggot Sandwich for this week has “gone to press” on Sunday afternoon. One local rumour has been directly denied by the council – that is, that the larger recreation park on the other side of Woolwich Road would be moved onto the former Splash Park site, then the entire recreation park site, along with the adjacent Belvedere Library would be sold off to allow a high concentration flat development, thus making a pile of short term cash for the rapacious council, and a longer term cash cow in the form of annual council tax revenue from the residential development. Councillors flatly deny this is the case – but in my experience (with a few very notable exceptions) I find that you can always tell when a politician is lying – their lips are moving. In an interview with the Bexley Times, Councillor Daniel Francis (one of the notable exceptions in my experience) said “While I welcome the news that the council plans to retain inclusive play facilities on the site, it is deeply disappointing that over 100 years of a water facility on this site will be brought to an end. This decision would have been taken over a year ago, if it were not for the tireless work of local campaigners. I would like to place on record my thanks to all those campaigners and in particular to Ian Doherty for setting up the campaign, Rachael Thompson, Nicola Taylor and Alex Taylor for their work and in particular Faye Ockleford for her tireless work co-ordinating the campaign and the Save our Splash Park FaceBook page. I therefore welcome the assurances we have received that the council do not propose selling either of the Woolwich Road recreation grounds, and we will be holding them to account to ensure they keep their promise on this issue. While the council may claim this decision has been caused by lack of interest from companies to run a water facility, this is of course not the case. This decision is a purely ideological one taken by a Conservative council as a result of the reduction in funding from a Conservative Government.” A pity that he had to put the party political boot in at the end; I know that some Conservative councillors secretly backed the plan to save the Splash Park, but were too afraid to say so publicly for fear of retribution.

The “Clean for the Queen” event aims to recruit one million people to help tidy up the UK’s dirtiest areas in time for the Queen’s 90th birthday on the weekend on 4, 5 and 6 March. Prior to this weekend, it is rather unfortunate that the PR company promoting the positive event have chosen a negative way of publicising it. They have highlighted what they consider to be the twelve dirtiest places in Britain,  and they list Erith as one of those towns.  A photo of rubbish dumped on South Road in Erith was submitted and chosen as one of the dirtiest. Campaign director Adrian Evans said in an interview with the News Shopper: “The dirty dozen all share a common theme – they are local eyesores.  Rubbish has been dumped by people who can’t be bothered to dispose of it responsibly – bottles, cans, wrappers and bags.  We have chosen these grotspots to highlight just how bad the litter problem is and also to emphasise that everyone can make a difference to their local area by not littering. To show that these places would be so much more beautiful if the litter was cleared, the Clean for The Queen team and friends are undertaking to clean up three of the grotspots in advance of the Clean for the Queen weekend on 4, 5 and 6 March.” Other towns listed as being exceptionally dirty and rubbish – filled were Thurrock, Derbyshire (not a town, I know!), Stamford, Tooting, Birmingham, Chippenham, Cardiff, Ipswich, Brighton, Newcastle and Hammersmith. 

I have had several readers ask me about buying a new computer, and what they should look for. A couple of years ago many IT industry insiders were predicting the imminent demise of the desktop PC, to be replaced with tablet devices and mobiles. The only people who were expected to continue using tower PC’s were gamers who endlessly upgrade and tweak their computer hardware to get the best performance possible. In the end, the death of the desktop PC seems not to have happened after all. There is still a demand for desktop machines. I have some predictions for the next year and the personal computer. The switch to Windows 10 will really start to have an impact, as Windows 7 goes out of mainstream support – and very few migrated to the disastrous and buggy Windows 8 / 8.1. It is expected that plenty of organisations will look therefore decide 2016's as good a time as any to take the plunge on a new PC fleet, powered by Windows 10. The top three PC-makers – Dell, Lenovo and HP have released details of the products they think will appeal to their customers.  One thing all three companies think customers will want this year is size. Or more specifically, a lack thereof. Towers and mini-towers are now for workstation-wranglers only. The corporate desktop is now a margarine-tub-sized affair. That shrinkage has been made possible by three things, the first of which is the demise of optical drives. Nobody needs to load software from CD or Blu – Ray disc anymore, and USB sticks are now the dominant portable data medium. So out go optical drives and the space they occupy. Disk density helps, too, as a 500GB 2.5-inch drive is now easy to find at decent prices and solid-state disks are also cheap. Whatever storage device you choose, it needs less space than its predecessor, meaning smaller PCs become possible. Intel's Skylake processors are the third and biggest space-saver, as they run cooler and also boast built-in graphics. By requiring less cooling and removing the need for a graphics card, Skylake means PCs can shrink in size. Nowadays only hard-core gamers looking for ultra high resolution and very high frame refresh rates still feel the need for a separate, dedicated 3D graphics card, unlike the days of yore. Smaller PCs also have manufacturers thinking about what they can do with a shrunken system. Bolting the client to the back of a monitor is now a common trick. Lenovo's taken the idea further with the “TinyOne 23”, a small form factor PC designed to mate with a slot in a matching monitor. Personally it reminds me of a “Happy Shopper” Apple iMac, but without the slick design. 2016's new laptops will do what laptops have done since day one: get smaller, lighter and thriftier in the demands placed on batteries. Under the hood, the M.2 interface will make plenty more appearances, as a connector for all manner of devices but especially SSDs. The three manufacturers who were consulted expected to see 256GB SSDs as 2016's sweet spot, with demand for 512GB rising, but cost keeping demand muted. Solid state storage will continue to take over from hard disk drives, as SSD capacity increases, costs come down and their life is extended. The two biggest improvements SSD drives bring to the party are increased speed and decreased power consumption – no need to spin a physical disk around saves a lot of battery power. The newly introduced USB-C connectivity standard won't appear in all business laptops: consensus is it's too soon for business users to want it, but it's tipped for bigger things next year once its potential to replace desktop docks is realised. Users are tired of proprietary docks, the big three tell us, and USB-C is expected to clean up in coming years. One other advantage USB – C has will be welcomed by everyone who has ever needed to connect a USB lead to a PC. For the first time ever, the USB standard, version C will allow plugs to be inserted either way round – no more scrabbling around the back of a computer or TV, trying to work out which way the USB plug goes in (and it is always the wrong way first time – I think this is a universal law). Another new connectivity standard has also been launched with 2016’s new PC hardware in mind;  WiGig is a short-range wireless protocol that can transmit audio and video or data. It's felt that the standard will let a laptop drive a monitor and connect to peripherals. The standard will find its way into some laptops this year, with Lenovo planning it as standard and intending to release a WiGig dock. Dell and HP see later adoption of the technology, which should prove popular with business users. The ability to wirelessly connect to external monitors or 4K televisions will be something many users will wonder how they coped beforehand.  Laptops capable of doing duty as tablets are very much in demand, so touch screens are increasingly common across all three vendors' ranges, bringing with them the ability to contort devices into different working positions. Whatever you buy, in whatever form factor, expect it to come with at least 4GB of DDR 4 RAM – better still 8GB. Anything less is seen as cutting corners. On a slightly different note, There's a new Sinclair ZX Spectrum in the works - this time it's a handheld dedicated games console.The Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ passed its £100,000 crowdfunding target on IndieGoGo in less than three days. At the time of publication £160,000 had been pledged by 1500 backers. The handheld, which follows last year's Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega, comes with 1000 licensed games built-in and costs £100. A bit of background: the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega+ is marketed by the Luton-based Retro Computers (Sir Clive's Sinclair Research Ltd is a shareholder). The development and marketing of the Vega+ is under license from Sky In-Home Service Ltd, who inherited the intellectual property rights to the Spectrum computers from Amstrad. Retro said development of the Vega+ is complete and a fully-functioning prototype is ready to go into production. It has a colour LCD and can be connected to a television. As already mentioned, it comes with 1000 licensed games, but you can download additional games free of charge. The design concept of the Vega+ is the work of Rick Dickinson, who was responsible for the design of all of Sinclair's ZX computers in the 1980s. A short explanatory video is below.



Now here is some interesting information about a newly formed local crime fighting initiative:- "Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association has set up a BikeWatch scheme in Bexley to try and help reduce the amount of nuisance and crime from Biker gangs in the Borough of Bexley. The main problems are in and around Thamesmead and Erith (although not confined to these two areas) at the very least these gangs can cause a nuisance with the noise they make late at night with their bikes, but there has also been other instances where bike gangs have attacked individuals and where their behaviour on their bikes has endangered members of the public.As the numbers of bikers increase the police are struggling to cope, as often they are unable to chase the bikers as they drive off-road while being pursued by the police, additionally often by the time the police are able to respond to a call the bikers have gone, although the disturbance has already happened and residents have been woken from their sleep. Our BikeWatch scheme like many of our other non-residential schemes such as ShopWatch and HoundWatch offer membership to residents who are then able to report instances and give information on the bikers for example time the incident happened, the number of bikes, what they were doing, registration numbers and description of riders etc etc, which we would pass onto the relevant ward police team according to area/ward of the incident, and this enables them to build up information for possible prosecution. What this scheme also offers differently from our other schemes is that residents don't have to join, they can fill in a BikeWatch incident report card and send it to us without giving their details if they fear they could suffer from reprisals from these youths. We feel also that parents should also be brought to bear when bikers are caught as they often enable their children, by purchasing them a bike and by allowing them to be out on them sometimes to the early hours of the morning. The police have powers to confiscate the bikes and have them crushed and we hope that with this scheme and residents support more of the constant offenders will be caught and that dealt with in this way. More serious instances have included a lady with a buggy nearly being hit when a biker who was riding on one wheel slipped off nearly hitting her and her buggy / child in Erith, another where one of our members who was filming their illegal activity near a shopping centre was attacked and punched also in Erith, and a person being beaten to a pulp by a gang of bikers in Abbey Wood, plus gangs on bikes riding around at night stealing motor bikes from residents. THIS HAS TO STOP NOW, BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP PLEASE JOIN BIKEWATCH TODAY. For copies of our BikeWatch Cards please either ring 0208 284 5537 or email bexwatch-office@btconnect.com BEXLEY BOROUGH NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH ASSOCIATION-we now have over 1,000 volunteers working to help to keep the Borough Safe why not join us NOW?" You can find out more about Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association by clicking here. 

Fellow local Blogger Malcolm Knight, of the excellent “Bexley is Bonkers” blog has been making adverse comments on the changes made to the roadways and pavements in and around Bexley, principally in Sidcup High Street and Bexleyheath Broadway. His poor view of the changes in the street layout, removing the delineation between pedestrian and traffic areas into what some now called “shared space” matches my own. The town planners and architects seem to like this uncertainty of what is road and what is pavement, but the council tax paying public seem to not. It appears that our antipathy is mirrored by Councillor Stef Borella, Labour shadow cabinet member for traffic and transport, who views the works as a council vanity project. He said in an interview in the Bexley Times that “The works are costing £5.5million, that’s money that could have been spread elsewhere. You can put that money in places like Sidcup High Street, Forest Road in Slade Green, or in developing Belvedere. It’s such a vanity project to focus on developing Bexleyheath. When I was knocking on doors during the general election, I’d say around 85 per cent were opposed to the idea of these roadworks.” In my opinion the reason the money gets spent in Bexleyheath and the Southern part of the London Borough of Bexley is because that is where the governing councillors live; the poorer North of the Borough gets repeatedly ignored, as the residents of the North did not elect the councillors that are now in power. Danson Splash Park in Welling was not even considered for closure, but the much more popular and widely used Belvedere Splash Park was - you work it out.

The photo above shows the former Odeon, Erith when it was being used as a Mecca bingo hall back in 1985; it was a sad end for a glorious Art Deco building, constructed in 1937, and opened in 1938, it seated 1,240 people. You can see more period photos of the building by clicking here. Sadly, even though it was a Grade II* listed building, it was demolished in 1999, and now a block of flats and offices stands on the site. Wetherspoons had hoped to conserve the original cinema building and convert it into a pub / restaurant, but the close proximity of the Sherwood House sheltered housing scheme directly opposite meant that this was never going to happen - the levels of noise and disturbance at night would never have been permitted by the licensing authorities. 

MP for Erith and Thamesmead, Teresa Pearce has been getting rightly annoyed in my opinion in cuts being made to the Magistrate's Court system locally. Dartford Magistrates' Court has been axed in moves to "modernise" the justice system, the government has announced. Meanwhile, two justice buildings will be lost in the Greenwich borough - where both Greenwich Magistrates' Court and Woolwich County Court are to close. They were three of 91 buildings, 57 magistrates and 19 county courts, at threat of closure by the HM Courts and Tribunal Service.  According to the HM Courts and Tribunal Service, the 86 courts they are closing are used for just over a third of their available hearing time, the equivalent of less than two days a week. In Dartford, the proposal was to transfer all cases seventeen miles away to Medway Magistrates' Court - but 97 per cent of residents nationwide should still be able to reach their court within an hour by car. The workloads and hearings of Greenwich and Woolwich will be moved to Bromley County Court. In an interview with the News Shopper, Teresa Pearce said “The government has already slashed legal aid and increased court fees. Many are representing themselves because they cannot afford a lawyer. And now victims and witnesses will have to travel much further than before, further threatening their right to local access to justice. Many of the cases looked into at these courts are for family matters or less serious offences. The Ministry of Justice say it will only take 20 minutes from Greenwich to Bromley – well that’s just not my experience. It will take longer for police to transport prisoners and longer for witnesses or victims to travel to court at greater personal expense. I urge the government to reconsider these proposals. You cannot put a price on fair access to justice for all." To balance this, it has to be said that some of the court buildings that are being closed have been chronically underused in recent years. I understand that currently the inefficiency in the court system and the underuse of buildings is estimated to cost the UK taxpayer half a billion pounds a year. What is the answer? Leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Look out for increased levels of Police, emergency service and military activity in and around the local area in the next couple of weeks; Exercise Unified Response will simulate a tower block collapsing into Waterloo Underground station packed with passengers. The four-day exercise, starting on February 29th, aims to test the contingency planning of more than seventy organisations, from mortuaries to the Government’s Cobra committee. It will be staged at the decommissioned Littlebrook power station, near Dartford Crossing, and include two thousand volunteers playing casualties amid upturned Tube trains and thousands of tons of rubble. It is understood that the techniques being tested could also be used in a terror incident. Following the Paris suicide bombings and gun attacks in November, which killed 130, London firefighters wearing bulletproof vests have been trained to work alongside police while gunmen are still at large. The €1 million (£770,000) drill is funded by the European Union and will include specialists from Hungary, Italy and Cyprus. Part of the exercise is to test if they could get to trapped survivors faster than the July 7 terror attacks in 2005, and help reduce their trauma. It will be interesting to see what happens. If you have been contacted as a volunteer for the four day exercise, please let me know - Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week examines the future for the currently empty and derelict Spillers Millennium Flour Mill in Silvertown, Docklands. The iconic building has been used as a TV and film location, most notably in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket". It is now about to be refurbished and put back into use. The short video explains how the listed building is going to be restored and internally transformed; it makes for interesting and informative viewing.

Nine years of the Maggot Sandwich.

So, here we are; the Maggot Sandwich is officially nine years old. Every Sunday afternoon for the last nine years I have published my blog, and for some happily unknown reason, a large number of people, both locally and around the world have chosen to read it. The Blog is almost unrecognisable when compared to the start; it has transformed from a rather annoying and shouty rant at life, the universe and everything into what I hope is an entertaining and informative journal with a focus on local events. I must admit that I had absolutely no intention of the Maggot Sandwich turning into what I suppose could be viewed as part of the local online landscape – I suppose that this is mainly due to its’ longevity – throw enough stuff at the wall, and eventually something will stick. As some have suspected, I feel that I am really a frustrated amateur journalist; since I cannot do the real thing, I play at it online. Some readers have accused me of being a “proper” author, but I hold no such illusions. I write because I enjoy it, and some sixteen million words further along from when I started, it would seem that a sizable number of readers do too. Thanks to those who have stuck with me since the beginning, and also to those who have discovered the dubious maggoty delights more recently. I have had a number of messages of congratulations on the 9th birthday of the Maggot Sandwich; here are a selection:-

" The blog honours the past but embraces the future. It has become a firm fixture in everything Erith and long may it continue" Teresa Pearce MP.

"As the Maggot Sandwich celebrates its 9th birthday, I would like to congratulate Hugh Neal for his tireless efforts to make Erith safe. The Sandwich has become the Agenda Setter for the community. Hugh would always be the first to report or draw attention to issues that make Erith safe and healthy to live. He is non partisan in his reporting in the subject he covers. Policing - He has drawn attention to troubled spots on numerous occasions and this has always help the Police to follow up and minimise crime. Trading - He has reported about food safety and the unhygienic conditions of some shops. Public -  His coverage of the behaviour of some people in public has brought great changes. Politics - His coverage of political issues has always been followed by the MPS and Councillors in the area he covers. This has made the area a safer place. As a Councillor I have picked some of my cases in the community from his Blogs and benefited from his personal contacts and advice. One of his greatest achievement is the fight to keep Historical buildings and Archives safe. Thank you Hugh for your service to the community. I hope the Maggot Sandwich will celebrate many more years and I wish its publication Happy Birthday". Councillor Edward Boateng.

"I stumbled across the Maggot Sandwich early in 2010 and first met Hugh at a meeting of “hyper-local bloggers” called by OFCOM in the September of that year. I didn't have much of a clue what a hyper-local blogger was and felt totally out of my depth in such esteemed circles while trying to look inconspicuous so as not to be asked questions. The meeting was memorable for several reasons; firstly it was held in the very same room where back in 1967, when the building was brand new and owned by the General Post Office, I sat designing, or rather specifying the capacity of, telephone exchanges in the days when every unit was bespoke and hand built for its intended situation. BT just buys them off the shelf now, from Maplin's bargain range I shouldn't wonder if the software problems are anything to go by. Secondly Hugh sat next to me adorned by a new Nikon DSLR and me by my seven year old model. I had no idea that cameras had progressed that far and felt compelled to go out and buy a new one. That reawakening of my photographic interests has cost quite a lot of money since. Thanks Hugh. The following year Hugh had another major impact on my life, he used the now notorious ‘pitchforks and flaming torches’ metaphor about council leader Teresa O'Neill. She reported me to the police for a reference to Hugh’s penchant for literary quotations. Whenever I feel I might be being a little too harsh on the great lady I remind myself that she wanted me arrested for being “critical of councillors” and press on regardless. One thing I find rather nice about the local blogging scene is how three authors have never discussed their strategies, but everything has fallen into place naturally with very little overlap. Hugh reports news, fascinating historical facts, gossip and on the local criminal fraternity. The Thamesmead Grump is the place to go for bureaucratic idiocies, a wonderfully warped sense of humour and amazing photographs, and Bonkers digs the dirt. It all seems to work quite well. Long may it continue". Malcolm Knight - Bexley is Bonkers.

"My son is a keen blogger himself (250beers.com) put me onto the Maggot Sandwich in 2012, I have looked in since. Hugh's varied topics touch on music, computing, real ale, what our council spends our money on..........or don't! ne'er do wells fly tipping, yobs illegally riding motorbikes, to hideous waste of money sculptures! He is on committees and has become a keen activist trying to preserve OUR Erith! Well done Hugh, keep it up!  I love the old photo's often shown, supplied by Ken a local historian. The Maggot Sandwich is archived so you may catch up at your leisure!  If you think you may be able to provide an interesting insight into our Erith past or present, Hugh invites guest writers to do this...........I have! Best Wishes for the next 9 years Hugh". Alan Magin.

"Whether it is for the whispers and rumours or reporting on local events, I read Hugh's blog religiously each week. It is great to see somebody keen to talk up Erith publicly as much as possible. Reading Arthur Pewty's Maggot Sandwich has become a part of Erith, just like the fish roundabout!" Councillor Joe Ferreira.

"I can't believe its been 9 years that you have been producing the Maggot Sandwich.  I always look forward to reading it every Sunday.  For me the Maggot Sandwich is a way of keeping up with what is going on in Erith and surroundings.  You are doing a fantastic job, and it amazes me how you find the time to write and research all your input".  Betty, Maryland USA.

"WELL DONE AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MAGGOT SANDWICH FOR REACHING ITS 9TH BIRTHDAY. The  Maggot Sandwich is a valuable tool for fighting crime and providing an up to date insight into what is happening in and around Erith. Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association appreciates the support it gets from both Erith Watch and Maggot Sandwich and we are very happy to have Hugh Neal as one of our Coordinators. Keep up the superb and invaluable work you do for your community, we look forward to your 10th Birthday Celebrations." Dana Whiffen, Chairman Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association.

"Happy birthday Arthur - congrats on turning 9. We're still in short trousers here, and have just turned 8" - Harringay Online.

"I first discovered the Maggot Sandwich around two years ago, and it quickly became part of my Sunday routine. I don't remember how I came across it, I think it may have been a link from the Bexley is Bonkers site. 9 Years of continuous weekly publication is a considerable achievement as I know from personal experience. My blog is less than 2 years old and I have never been able to keep up anything like a weekly production. Here's looking forward to another 9 years." The Thamesmead Grump.

"Congratulations on the ninth anniversary of Arthur Pewty's Maggot Sandwich. As an ex-pat Brit, many miles and many years away from my childhood in "Erith on the Mud",  I really look forward to each new Sunday morning  post and I do appreciate the wide range of topics that you cover and your independent and fairly stated opinions. Very best wishes!"Avril Tyrrell (Expat) Ontario, Canada.

"Hi Hugh, I still read your blog each week even if I don't comment and I know many people who read it and don't give feedback. I like learning about your local area and enjoy the pictures. I would like to see a map of your main shopping area past and present so I can see who dominates the high street now and who has bit the dust in the years since your blog began. You often post new builds and developments so this snapshot of your high st would be of interest. Do you have any large shopping centres or malls? I don't mean on the scale of Bluewater or lakeside but still somewhere I could spend half a day at with lunch and coffee and a lighter pocket, lol. I like your features outside of your local blog interest like showing the old computers and stuff and the radio features both about you and other radio stations. I thought of two ideas that may appeal to you... 1. Have you thought of adding perhaps 5 mins of audio to your blog each week to give the headlines and a bit about each feature? 2. Have you thought of adding a twitter feed and embedding it into your blog? That way if there is something major going down that you would deem as breaking news, you could post something in an instant instead of us waiting for your next full blog update. You could still  include it in your usual update in much more detail after tweeting it. The point being to get it out there in real time. Finally I know you listen to Allan Wiener on WBCQ like me so maybe your UK audience would like to know more of it. I am in fact going to contact Allan and ask him if he has any plans to beam his shortwave into Europe. The 7490 transmitter would fare best here at night." Gary Drew, Laser Hot Hits.

Quite a few readers bumped into me at the Erith Fun Day last Saturday; one lady came all of the way from Croydon to attend the event, she said purely from what I had written about it on the Maggot Sandwich previously, which was pleasantly surprising. As you may have seen, I spent quite a bit of time helping out on the Erith Town Forum stand. The Forum have been running a petition to try and encourage Bexley Council to preserve and protect both the former Potion / White Hart pub, and the historic Andrew Carnegie gifted old Erith Library in Walnut Tree Road. The remit of the campaign by the forum may need to be widened, as there are strong rumours reaching me that another historic Erith building may be under threat. I have been told by an impeccable source that Bexley Council are considering terminating their outsourcing contract with Capita – the private company that runs housing benefit payments from Erith Town Hall, also in Walnut Tree Road. The contract with Capita is due to run until 2019, but I am led to believe that an early break point option exists in 2015. The contract, worth £14 million was planned to extend the partnership by three years to June 2019, and has seen the Council’s financial assessment team transfer to Capita Local Government Services. Capita’s original contract with Bexley began in 1996 and today the breadth of services being delivered to the Council includes; council tax and business rates administration; cashiering services; benefits administration, and the financial assessment service. The financial assessments team is responsible for the administration of applications for assistance towards residential care costs and costs for care packages delivered to residents in their homes. There are currently just over 3,700 active assessment cases in Bexley. It would seem that Bexley may be about to enter into a money saving joint contract with the London Borough of Bromley in preference to their individual one with Capita. No other council functions are housed at Erith; the question remains – what would happen to the old Council Offices? It does not take a business genius to see where Bexley’s planning Councillors are heading with their thinking. With Capita no longer in the picture, and pretty much all of the rest of the council functions now being centralised in Bexleyheath, the Erith office building will be ripe for sale and redevelopment. As we have seen on several occasions, Bexley Council will stop at nothing to sell off the family silver just as fast as they can. If the Erith Town Hall is sold, it would be quite probable that the old Carnegie Library next door would also be included in the sale. Now that the economy is beginning to pick up, it would not be at all surprising to me if a property company came along with a proposal to develop the site into “Yuppie Flats” – the evidence is there. The Walnut Tree Road site is large, it has a view out across the River Thames, it is literally two minutes’ walk from Erith Station, and is also very close to the bus halts in front of the Riverside Shopping Centre. With Crossrail coming to Abbey Wood (and strong indications it will later be extended through to Ebbsfleet to connect with the forthcoming Paramount theme park) train connections to Erith from London are set to improve. Already one can get to Cannon Street from Erith in around thirty five minutes – delays and cancellations notwithstanding. It strikes me as pretty much a no – brainer that Erith is set for a further property boom over and above that which I have described in detail in recent blog postings. I have said before that it is entirely possible that Erith will undergo “gentrification” – a term I dislike. Nevertheless, as property prices in Bexley mean that the borough is now officially the most attractive place for first time buyers to move into, does mean that more attention from developers and property investors is bound to come.  I have spoken to two professional economists with strong connections with Erith; they are of the opinion that “Erith is set to be the next Dalston”.  The indications tend to confirm this. Whether we will be able to preserve and maintain historic buildings like the White Hart and the old Carnegie Library will remain to be seen. I can reveal that developments in relation to the Potion / White Hart site are looking promising - but that is all I am able to say for now. More later.

When Oyster was first rolled out, where TfL said that clashes between Oyster and other contactless card systems were simply not possible. I doubted this at the time, and my fears have proved to be grounded in reality.  The fact is that many people are getting penalty fares as they own more than one Oyster card, and keep them in the same wallet or purse – and they swipe the wallet or purse over the reader, rather than taking the specific card out. In these cases, one card gets debited on swipe in, and the other on swipe out – one could end up in a situation where one was penalised £8.50 for the card that swiped in but not out, and another £8.50 for the card that swiped out but not in. On top of this if one presents the wrong Oyster card when questioned by a revenue protection officer, you can be fined up to £80 for travelling without a ticket. This is all about to get even more complex, as Transport for London are heavily promoting “bonk n’ pay” –  the use of contactless bank debit cards to swipe into stations. They would rather passengers used their contactless debit cards, as it saves 2p per transaction in Oyster processing charges. Contactless debit card transaction costs are borne by the relevant bank. Some time ago, my bank sent me a new contactless debit card, which I returned to them in person. As I wrote way back in January 2012, the whole contactless payment system is riddled with security holes and undocumented features. With hardware and software freely available online, it is possible to remotely interrogate a contactless card and to read certain data from it. The range is only about ten feet, but it is close enough for a crook with a card reader and a smartphone running illicit software. You only need to be standing in the same queue, or sharing a lift for the stealing of your card information to happen. I note with astonishment that the popular press has taken until the last week to pick up on this important story, with the Daily Mail and other papers running articles on how contactless “bonk and pay” card security can be compromised. I have to say – I told you so – over three years ago. It is not that I have some mega – amazing level of insight into IT  security matters (though working in the industry does mean I have a better than average awareness), it is more that the banking and retail industries want to play down such security loopholes, as it is bad for their corporate images. To those who say “it is not such a big deal, you can only lose up to £20 on a transaction, and after nine swipes you will be asked for your pass code” really miss the point – the card details can be used as verification when setting up an identity theft; on top of this, the current £20 maximum limit for swipe payment (due to increase to £30 later this year) only applies to pounds sterling. Due to a little – reported bug in the UK implementation, payments made in Euros have an upper limit of £999,999.99 – not something that the banks are keen on their customers knowing about. You have been warned.

You may recall that some time ago I complained about the large numbers of flies that plague the local area, and for some inexplicable reason they seem to particularly target Pewty Acres. I have found that modern fly sprays have very little effect, as house flies and gnats seem to have evolved a level of resistance to the neurotoxins in the fly spray. I am also a bit wary of using such chemicals in the home, as they can easily end up in food and drink, however carefully one covers things up prior to spraying. instead I invested in a Vermatik electric insect controller, as seen in the photo above; it is a version of the classic "Insectocutor" seen in so many public buildings and food outlets. It uses two Ultraviolet flourescent tubes to lure insects onto a high voltage grid, where they are instantly destroyed. It works very well - and apart from the occasional fizz and crackle as a house fly or gnat gets zapped, it gets on with things very efficiently. Vermatik are actually a British company who manufacture a whole range of pest controllers. I bought mine from Amazon for £30. I can highly recommend them. 

Whilst attending Erith Fun Day last Saturday, many of the visitors could see a large pall of smoke coming from the direction of the Slade Green Marshes. The sound of the PA and the piped music covered the sirens from the emergency service vehicles that rushed down to Dayton Drive on the marshes; London Fire Brigade sent six fire engines to the scene and 35 firefighters and officers, who spent more than three hours bringing the grass fire under control. The area burnt was reportedly the size of four football pitches. The blaze is thought to be the result of a carelessly discarded cigarette butt. Whilst most of the traffic on the Slade Green Marshes travels to and from the businesses located in the Darent Industrial Estate, there are still quite a large number of walkers and nature enthusiasts who enjoy spending time on the Bronze Age site of special scientific interest.

Bexley Councillor Peter Craske has landed himself in even more hot water. On Tuesday evening Bexley Council held a meeting in which the future of Belvedere Splash Park was discussed (the photo above shows what the Splash Park looked like back in 1950, when it was known as "The Belvedere Pond and Gardens" - click on it for a larger view). A group from the “Save Belvedere Splash Park” were present at the meeting. As was expected, the technical report on the work required to restore the Splash Park to running order was nodded through. The Council have stated, as expected that a private investor will have to be found if the Splash Park is to have any chance of staying open, as they will not finance it from public funds. Nothing we did not expect; however one thing which was totally unexpected, was Councillor Peter Craske, who described the campaigning group as “complainers and moaners”. Apart from being very rude, it is not surprising that the campaigners are indeed complaining – after all, it seems to me that they have every reason to complain at the way a small cabal of the leadership of Bexley Council are acting like a tin – pot dictatorship in some obscure banana republic. As Malcolm Knight of the excellent “Bexley is Bonkers” blog has analysed, the council could easily have managed its’ finances in a way which would have made the proposed sell – off of much public land in the borough unnecessary. They have historically preferred to cut services, or outsource operations rather than introduce mild rises in the rate of council tax. The latest cut may be Erith Town Hall, as previously mentioned. Compared with the glory days, the number of (outsourced) staff working in the building nowadays is relatively small, but nevertheless significant. If Bexley Council were run like a business, with the Councillors as directors, and the residents the shareholders, I feel that we might well be in a far better position. The trouble is, there are a handful of councillors who currently are in positions of power who would not last five minutes in a real company. In local government it is far easier for them to hide behind layers of bureaucracy and obscure rules which protect them from the kind of pressures that “real” businesses have to endure.

I mentioned some weeks ago that I was glad that the Money Shop in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre had closed down. I am strongly opposed to the very high interest charges which such payday lenders impose, and am really glad that the government has encouraged the industry regulators to crack down on them recently. Short-term lending has been cut by sixty eight percent in two years as regulators imposed price caps, according to the Consumer Finance Association (CFA). In a report to MPs, the trade body said that eighty percent of loan applications were rejected. Of these, four percent have borrowed from illegal lenders instead, the CFA claimed. Citizens Advice said it had seen a fifty three percent drop in the number of payday loan problems it recorded in April to June compared with the same period a year earlier. In many cases payday lenders were lending to people to who could not afford to repay. The fifty three percent decrease in payday loan issues reported to Citizens Advice shows the new regulations are having a positive effect for consumers.  The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) set a cap on the cost of payday loans of zero point eight percent of the amount borrowed per day, which came into force in January. There is also there is a £15 cap on default charges. No borrower has to pay back more than twice the amount they initially borrowed, lenders can no longer roll over a loan more than twice, nor can they attempt to reclaim payment from a borrower's account more than twice. The CFA report suggests that, as result of the new regulations, the number of firms operating in the market has dropped from 240 in 2013 to about 30 to 40 offering a short-term loan within the price cap in 2015. Many payday lenders in smaller towns and villages have already closed down, as the operators have consolidated their operations into larger conurbations in the hope of surviving. The only downside to this is some really impoverished people are now resorting to illegal back – street lenders, who operate in the shadows, and have absolutely no regulation whatsoever. The ethical alternative is a  credit union; unfortunately these have not proved a great success in the UK so far. Across the UK, just two percent of the adult population is a member of a credit union. In the United States they are used by forty six percent of consumers. There is one key reason for this;  although they offer good value loans, most of them offer a very poor deal to savers. Unless more people can be persuaded to save with them, credit unions will never get more cash to lend to needy borrowers. It is, as I have said repeatedly before, very expensive to be poor in the UK nowadays. Let me know what you think - you can Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Concerns over the possible fate of both the former Potion / White Hart pub and the Andrew Carnegie gifted old Erith Library building may have been slightly mollified by the news this week that in a landmark decision that may have direct bearing on the demolition and / or change of use of historic premises by developers. Last week, Wandsworth Council rejected an application for retrospective planning permission from Udhyam Amin following his decision last month to demolish the Alchemist pub in Battersea. The Victorian pub, near Clapham Junction station, was open for more than 100 years before it closed in 2013 and fell derelict. It was pulled down in May by Mr Amin who had plans to extend it and build a block of flats. The council responded to this unlawful demolition by launching enforcement action requiring the developer to rebuild it with original materials. Council Planners ruled that the developer’s application should be refused because the loss of a local landmark and prominent historic building in a conservation area would be against the public interest. The developer will now be required to start work on rebuilding the pub in St John’s Hill and restoring it to its original condition. This really is a landmark case; even if the developer declares his company bankrupt in order to avoid carrying out the rebuilding work, it still sends out a very strong message to unscrupulous developers looking to make a quick buck by illegally knocking down historic buildings. I hope that anyone looking at either the old Erith Library or Potion / The White Hart will take notice. From the evidence from last Saturday’s Erith Fun Day, and the number of signatures gathered on the Erith Town Forum petition, it is clear that many other people feel as strongly about the conservation and appreciation of these historic buildings as I do.

Finally, an ending video that I have been holding back for a special occasion. Long time readers will know that every so often I will feature a fan - made video,  usually of a sci - fi nature. Fans of franchises such as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have been making their own amateur films of varying quality for years. Charitably one could say that most of them were probably fun for the participants to make, but that they are not very polished or well put together. This is particularly true of Star Trek fan films, many of which are pretty awful, to be honest. This is where the video below is radically different. Star Trek: Axanar is the first independent, professionally shot movie set in the Star Trek Universe. It is set in the period between Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Original Series and features the back story of Garth of Izar. The production crew of the independent film are all professionals - including staff who worked on Star Trek: Enterprise, and the two recent JJ Abrams alternate universe Star Trek big screen movies; indeed the makeup and CGI leads both have won Oscars for their previous work. The cast are also all professional actors who have either previously worked on Star Trek, or other big budget science fiction shows. The film is currently being shot - it is crowd funded and will be not for profit; it is due for release next year. It will be a full two and a half hour theatrical production, which will be released online and also on Blu - Ray. To give an idea what the film will be like, the production team have already made a twenty one minute short video called "Prelude to Axanar" which you can watch below. It is a sort of "History Channel" documentary look back at the events portrayed in the forthcoming film, with interviews from the main protagonists. Believe me, this is not some shabby fan movie made with cardboard sets and CGI done on an old laptop - this is the first professional Hollywood movie produced using a completely new crowd funded business model. Already the movie exceeds the recent JJ Abrams efforts - a better story, better acting and a real understanding of the Star Trek "history". I highly recommend that you crank the definition as high as your internet connection speed will allow, make the video window full screen, and sit back and enjoy something truly remarkable.