The suits.

If you dropped into Morrison's supermarket in Erith on Wednesday or Thursday last week, you would probably have seen something quite interesting. Thirty or so directors and senior managers from Morrison's headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire descended on the Erith store to meet with the local management team. Word from a couple of my inside sources is that Morrison's have been concentrating new developments and services in their Northern stores, and the ones in the South have been missing out. Morrison's started out, and for many years was a regional store chain only operating in the North of England. It would seem that mentality is still present in the board of Directors. A downturn in sales has been especially noted in the Southern stores, and they have finally realised that they have a country - wide operation that needs to be treated as such. The "suits" were on site at the Erith store on a fact finding mission. I understand that a partial refit and upgrade may well be on the cards in the not - too distant future.  More details will hopefully be soon to come. 

As regular Maggot Sandwich readers will be aware, I have been banging on about the forthcoming London Paramount Theme Park for the last couple of years. Until recently the local press have been noticeably quiet on the subject. This week the News Shopper finally featured the subject in a fairly lengthy article. The theme park will be the third largest in the World, covering an area in excess of 100 acres. Unlike the Disney theme parks, which concentrate on Disney only franchises, the Paramount park will feature franchises from outside the Paramount field, including but not limited to the BBC, Aardman Animations and the British Film Institute’s back catalogue.  Franchises including the likes of Mission Impossible, Sherlock, The Italian Job, Star Trek, Spooks, Dr Who, Wallace and Gromit, The Godfather, Shaun the Sheep and huge amount more. I understand that over seventy five percent of the rides will be indoors, as the operators know how unreliable British weather can be – this was a mistake made by Disney when they opened Disneyland Paris – they merely built a copy of their Florida theme park in mainland France, and most of the rides were in the open, which meant empty rides when it rained.  The Paramount park will have 1,500 seat theatre for ‘West End quality shows’, exhibition, conference and gig space, 5,000 hotel rooms, a cinema and nightclubs, restaurants and bars and a giant water park. As I have previously featured, the park will have a massive economic and social impact on the entire South East region.  The developers confidently expect that the park would attract around 10 million visitors in the first year and around 15 million a year by the fifth, when there’s more on offer. By way of comparison, Thorpe Park pulls in about 2.5million visitors a year.  Paramount will also be open 365 days a year. The park will also offer a lot of well-paying permanent jobs – several sets of figures have been bandied about over the last couple of years, but at least twenty thousand full time permanent roles will be created. It won’t just be people wearing furry animal suits either – the park will need electricians, cleaners, maintenance people, accountants and administrators. It will in essence be a new town in itself, and it is anticipated that many of the park workers will live in the forthcoming Ebbsfleet Garden City. Whilst the plans for the Paramount London theme park have not yet been signed off, my sources tell me that it is going to be a formality – the level of unemployment in Kent is above the national average in many areas, and a prime wealth and job creating enterprise of this nature will get the nod from the Government. Time will no doubt tell.

I had quite an unexpected response to my article about curry houses that I published last week; I must admit that I did not think the piece would provoke the level of interest that it has. Several regular readers were curious as to how I acquired my knowledge of Indian restaurants. Well that is actually very simple. For several years I was a reviewer for The Good Curry Guide, and regularly wrote articles for the (now discontinued) Curry Club magazine. You can see a reproduction of a couple of reviews above that I had published almost exactly twenty years ago – a fact that becomes clear when you see the price of the dishes I reviewed! £2.95 for Chicken Vindaloo is something you won’t see nowadays. I would anonymously visit curry houses and review them as a normal customer – the only restaurant that ever found out that I was a curry house critic was Sweet and Spicy in Brick Lane, where I was a regular. They saw my glowing review, photocopied and enlarged it, and posted it in their front window, next to their “Time Out” best cheap eats award. The owner Omar Bhutt, came over to my table one day and asked me outright if the review had been written by me. I could not lie, and I admitted it. From that day onwards, I always got free extras like a couple of samosas or a gratis cup of tea, which was very welcome, as my visits were at lunchtime. The restaurant was a victim to the bout of gentrification that hit Brick Lane a couple of years ago, and it is now a fried chicken outlet; a sad end to one of the earliest Indian restaurants in Brick Lane – it opened in 1969, and was the only place in London that served curry for breakfast – it was an East End legend. You can read more about the place by clicking here. The Curry Club magazine ceased publication some years ago, and I very rarely eat out nowadays, so my hobby of curry critic is now no more. One of the few times I will visit a curry house is after the annual visit to the Bexley Beer Festival in Old Bexley, which coincidentally is scheduled for next weekend:-

Readers should be worried about their personal information that is being stored and accessed by the National Health Service; a recent independent report states that healthcare providers, including the NHS are likely to still be using Windows XP – an operating system that has been unsupported since the middle of 2014. Researchers from security consultancy Duo found that healthcare devices were significantly more out of date and less secure than ones from finance, after comparing its healthcare customers' devices to its finance customers' equipment. Healthcare has a four times greater density of Windows XP computers compared to finance. Windows XP has been unsupported by Microsoft since 2014 and unsupported OSes do not receive any software patches or updates, making them an easy target for attackers. The risk is far from theoretical. For example, earlier this year Melbourne Health’s networks were infected with malware after an attack compromised the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s pathology department, which was running Windows XP. The Qbot malware linked to the infection is capable of stealing passwords and logging keystrokes. A significant minority (three per cent) of Duo’s installed base is stuck on Windows XP, which compares to one per cent of users across Duo’s entire client base. Across that customer base, finance has 50 per cent more instances of computers running on the Windows 10 operating system than healthcare. Twice as many healthcare endpoints have Flash installed and three times as many healthcare customers have Java installed on their devices, again putting them at greater risk of vulnerabilities and exploitation, as both Java and Flash are relatively easy to find security vulnerabilities in – and are often the first point a hacker will try and exploit. A separate study from IBM last week warned that crooks were increasingly targeting healthcare concerns rather than banks partly because systems were more weakly defended. Stolen healthcare info contains personal data that is readily marketed through underground forums because it offers the collateral to carry out identity fraud and other scams – a classic case of “low hanging fruit”. In a similar vein, the susceptibility of bank cash machines to malicious exploitation of ATMs in particular is due to the widespread use of outdated and insecure software, mistakes in network configuration, and a lack of physical security for critical components of ATMs. For many years, the biggest threat to the customers and owners of ATMs were skimmers – special devices attached to an ATM in order to steal PINs and data on bank card magnetic stripes. However, as malicious techniques have evolved, ATMs have been exposed to a greater range of dangers. In 2014, IT security specialist Kaspersky Lab researchers discovered Tyupkin – one of the first widely known examples of malware for ATMs – and in 2015, they uncovered the Carbanak gang, which among other things was capable of jackpotting (completely emptying of cash) ATMs through compromised banking infrastructures. Both examples of attack were possible due to the exploitation of several common weaknesses in ATM technology and in the infrastructure that supports them. In an effort to put together a more complete picture, Kaspersky Lab security penetration testing specialists looked at software and physical security weaknesses that leave cash machines open to looting. Malware attacks against ATMs are possible due to two main security shortcomings: 1) ATMs are essentially PCs running very old versions of operating systems, such as Windows XP. 2) In the vast majority of cases, the special software that allows the ATM's PC to interact with banking infrastructure and hardware units, processing cash and credit cards, is based on the XFS standard. This is a rather old and insecure technology specification, originally created in order to standardize ATM software so that it can work on any equipment, regardless of manufacturer. The XFS specification requires no authorisation for the commands it processes, meaning that any app installed or launched on the ATM can issue commands to any other ATM hardware unit, including the card reader and cash dispenser. That means if malware successfully infects an ATM, it inherits almost unlimited control capabilities. It can turn the PIN pad and card reader into a 'native' skimmer or just give away all the money stored in the ATM, upon a command from a hacker," the Kaspersky Lab research team warns. Physical security is, if anything, even weaker. The lack of physical security for the ATMs themselves makes criminal hacking possible without any recourse to malware needed. ATMs are often constructed and installed in a way that means a third party can easily gain access to the PC inside the cash machine, or to the network cable connecting the machine to the internet. By gaining even partial physical access to an ATM, criminals can potentially install a specially programmed microcomputer (a so-called black box), which will give attackers remote access to the ATM. Reconnecting the ATM to a rogue processing centre is also possible. Criminals are able to exploit insecurities in the network communication between the ATM and the banking infrastructure thanks in part to a lack of secondary controls, such as VPNs and authentication. The results of the security research show that even though vendors are now trying to develop ATMs with strong security features, many banks are still using old insecure models.  This makes them unprepared for criminals actively challenging the security of these devices. This is today's reality that causes banks and their customers huge financial losses. It would seem that cyber-criminals are not just interested in cyber-attacks against internet banking – they are increasingly turning their hands toward direct attacks. They see the value in exploiting ATM vulnerabilities because a direct attack against such devices significantly shortens their route to real money. You can be certain that any losses experienced by the banks will trickle down to customers in the form of higher interest rates and increased service charges, so it is most timely to find this to be of serious concern.

Since I covered the story of the huge fire at the Europa Industrial Estate in the early 1980’s, I have had some fascinating feedback from readers. Local Historian Ken Chamberlain sent me the aerial photograph that you can see above – click on it for a larger view. It shows the devastation left once the fire burned itself out. I am guessing that the photo may well have been commissioned on behalf of the loss adjusters working for the insurance company that insured the warehouses. The site is so large that an aerial photo would be the only way to really assess the extent of the damage. Nowadays it could be done far more quickly and cheaply by an aerial drone, but back in the day it would have had to be done by a light plane. Maggot Sandwich reader and retired firefighter Alan Magin was one of the team who tackled the blaze. He recalls:- "My recollection was that we made up the attendance from Greenwich, as we had the 100' turntable ladders. It was impossible trying to put it out, as the corrugated metal roof covered the combustible materials. I remember a plastics factory was also involved, melting its produce into the drains, so they needed replacing in the rebuild. What was handy though was the floating pontoon at the Erith Deep Water site. It was a case of relay pumping, from an appliance on the pontoon, as in effect we always had water! A senior officers decision no doubt, a good one if you ask me. Rather than use fresh water from the hydrants. I think the damping down operation lasted a week. It was interesting to hear you say the fire started in a paper warehouse with perhaps reeled paper? for newsprint maybe? If these reels got anywhere near damp they started to expand/unwind creating heat, hence the spontaneous combustion.  I attended a slightly larger fire at one of Mr Murdoch's warehouses in Grove St, Deptford, that one was started deliberately. I think he might have upset a few people!  Incidentally, I was shot up again on our 100' turntable ladder, (I must have been a glutton for punishment) only to be told by the operator to come down immediately. After my descent (walking down) the operator in his excitement had forgotten to put out the manual jacks to stabilise the appliance!!! I still think what might have happened if he had tried to manoeuvre the ladder? I might not have been here writing to you!"

It is that time of year again; the Friends of Riverside Gardens Erith (FORGE) are working in partnership with the environmental charity Thames 21 and volunteer groups including the Army Cadets to carry out their annual river cleanup on Sunday the 8th May. Volunteers are invited to join the work - protective clothing will be provided, and you get a free lunch. I will be going along to provide encouragement and to take some photos for future publication. Do come along to help clear the shopping trollies and other detritus out of the river.

At work, I, like many unfortunate people get quite a large number of unsolicited sales calls. The company switchboard are pretty good at filtering them out, but nevertheless a fair number do manage to get through. My normal technique is just to slam the phone down immediately. I was looking around online for a possible better solution when I came across this:- "I get 20 sales calls a day at least, as our organization is relatively large. All of them are unsolicited, and they use shady tactics to make it past the receptionist. So yesterday, in the middle of a team meeting, an emergency call came through the IT support hotline, interrupting our meeting. One of our help desk guys picks up and it's a sales guy claiming that he had just been chatting with me, the IT Director, and wanted to be transferred through so he could "finish the conversation." This was obviously untrue, as I had just arrived in the office, and I don't take sales calls. The help desk guy asked if I wanted him passed through to my voicemail, and I said: "I'd prefer that you transfer them straight to hell instead. In fact, we should have a special queue called Hell, playing the most obnoxious music over and over again." The guys start joking: "It could be playing Barney." "It could be playing 'The Song that Never Ends'." "It could be playing a detuned or desynchronized version of a Smash Mouth song." Our seasoned help desk veteran says: "I have just the thing!" and plays the most awful song I've heard in my life. Everything in the department stops, and then everyone busts out laughing. We are actually a well-oiled IT team – we've worked together for years. My background is in film soundtracks and audio production, and my senior network admin's is in broadcast radio audio engineering. We edited and snipped the audio, pitched shifted a few things, and generally set out to make the worst recording ever. Once finished, we uploaded it to the phone server and created the queue to repeat eternally. We assigned it extension number 666. Once in the queue, any button you press once in this queue restarts the recording. Our new department policy is: when sales people call they are to be transferred straight to hell". You can hear the wait music and message from hell by clicking here. Make sure you have your headphone / speaker volume turned down! You have been warned. 

You may in the past recall me bemoaning the audio quality of DAB radio broadcasts in the UK - due mainly to the fact that they DAB transmission standard employed in the UK is for the most part archaic. A DAB audio signal is encoded in MP2 (the ancestor to today’s MP3 format). The newer and more efficient DAB+ audio signal is encoded in aacPlus (strictly, aacPlus HE v2). Your iPod / iPhone uses AAC as standard; aacPlus uses a number of clever techniques to make it more efficient, so audio sounds better at lower bitrates. Roughly, 48kbps DAB+ sounds the same as a 128kbps DAB signal. A DAB+ audio signal also includes slightly better error correction, which might mean a reduction in 'bubbling mud' distortion when the signal drops, or other problems in poor reception areas. Apart from that, there are no differences. DAB+ and DAB use the same transmitters, same multiplexing equipment, and so on, and DAB and DAB+ signals can happily live on the same DAB multiplex. A DAB+ radio will also happily decode DAB signals as well (although a DAB radio won’t decode DAB+). Many DAB radios on sale today will cope with DAB+ automatically, or will prompt you with instructions on how to upgrade (which could be as easy as typing a code in, or downloading some new firmware). Any radio with a Digital Radio tickmark will cope with DAB+. DAB+ is now the standard way to launch new DAB services, and is in use in, among other places, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, and many more. The main benefit is that you can get many more channels onto a typical DAB multiplex. The UK has no plans to move from DAB to DAB+. While DAB+ services are now appearing in the UK, there are no plans to switch the majority of radio broadcasting over to DAB+: not yet, anyway. There have been a lot of DAB sets sold in the UK. DAB sets are in over half of all households here, and generally we don’t replace radios as fast as any other entertainment equipment (like a TV, a set-top box, or a mobile phone). Given this, it is unlikely that the UK will be switching to DAB+ any time soon, and there are no plans to make that change. DAB+ doesn’t automatically mean better audio in comparison to DAB Some of the main proponents of DAB+ in this country want it because they think it’ll result in better-sounding audio. It probably will not; The main benefits to radio listeners from DAB+ will be additional choice, not enhanced sound quality. (That said, DAB+ normally means stereo is available at bitrates formerly only used for mono, so there is that.) Because the UK was an early adopter of DAB, we have been stuck with what is now a mostly out of date transmission infrastructure. No wonder take - up of DAB is far below the expectations of OFCOM. 

As you may have read in the London Evening Standard and elsewhere, there are plans to open a new terminal for cruise liners at Enderby's Wharf in Greenwich. Up to fifty passenger liners will sail past Erith on their way up the River Thames to Greenwich every year once the new terminal is opened. It will be a real treat for the ship spotters that you see on Erith Pier from time to time. What it will not be a treat for is the residents of the area surrounding Enderby Wharf. The cruise liners will need to run their auxiliary generators to generate power whilst docked, as the development plans don't include clean shoreside mains power in their scope. This week A powerful committee of MPs stepped into a row over plans to let cruise ships spew diesel fumes day and night in the heart of London. The cross-party group of MPs ruled: “Planning permissions for new shipping facilities must require appropriate mitigation measures from developers. This should include, where practicable, a requirement to provide infrastructure to supply electricity to ships at berth.” Whether this will in any way influence the developers is currently uncertain. Providing clean, shoreside power would be an expensive option, but to my mind is the only way forward. Air pollution on the Greenwich peninsula is already running at unacceptable levels, and cruise liners running on auxiliary generators would only make things far worse.  You can watch a BBC London news report on the situation below. Feel free to leave a comment, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Beer Festival 2014.

For only the second time in its nine year history, the Bexley Beer Festival was blessed with stunningly good weather. The event was held at the Old Dartfordians club in Bexley Village, and was very well attended indeed. Last year the visitors had to crowd into the main clubhouse building, and huddle together against the freezing temperature. This year the beer was served from a large marquee to the rear of the main building, which was a far more pleasant experience. on top of the already friendly and congenial atmosphere, a very civilised game of cricket took place on the green owned by the club, which many of the attendees were free to watch. Click on the panoramic view above to see just what the event was like - very laid back and civilised. Thanks to the Rev for supplying the wide screen photo. If you fancy playing a game of "Where's Wally?" (or in this case "Where's Pewty?") see if you can see me in the picture. I am hidden away somewhere in the shot. Answers on a postcard, please. Better still, leave a comment below.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich – our “local” hospital has been the subject of an in – depth investigation recently, and the results have been released this week. They do not make for encouraging reading. The report author, the Chief Inspector of Hospitals found that the Accident and Emergency department was “not fit for purpose”. The essence of the findings were that there were too few staff on duty, many of which were agency temps, rather than permanent staff. There were long delays in seeing patients, which often exceeded the four hour maximum the official guidelines stipulate, there was a lack of capacity to accommodate the number of patients requiring treatment, and the process for transferring patients from Accident and Emergency to a ward was inadequate. All of the points raised were directly or indirectly the result of chronic and ongoing under staffing. Bearing in mind that the Queen Elizabeth is the prime hospital for South East London, and if you live in the local area it is the most likely place for you to be taken should you require the services of an ambulance, it does somewhat focus the concentration. Not only was the Accident and Emergency department in trouble, but patients on general wards reporting that there were so few staff available that it could take thirty minutes to get a call bell answered. From my own limited experience of the hospital, the staff are very good and professional, but it would seem that there are just too few of them. I don’t know if the results of the report will get the hospital additional funding for extra medical staff to be employed, but plainly something needs to be done to address the problem of chronic understaffing.

The skyline over Erith is now starting to return to normal. The large orange tower crane that has loomed over Walnut Tree Road for the last year or so has gone. It would seem that construction on the new Bexley College campus has now reached a point where heavy lifting is no longer required. I must admit that I almost miss the sight of the crane, though I doubt that the residents of Stonewood Road, Cricketers Close and Tranquil Rise will be so keen. The crane, and the new college main building structure have obscured the Clarke belt from their satellite dishes. To explain, the Clarke belt is the area of geosynchronous orbit where communications satellites are located. It is named after science fiction author Sir Arthur C Clarke, who created the concept in the 1940’s for a story he was writing.  The effect of the new college building for a handful of local residents is that they can no longer watch Sky TV. I would imagine that Virgin are rubbing their hands with glee. Their fibre optic cable TV does not require access to satellites. I would think that a swap to cable TV would be the most pragmatic solution for those in close proximity to the new building. The mention of new building brings me back to last weeks’ lead story – the construction of a passenger lift at Bexleyheath station, despite there being little actual need for it. Reader Paul B commented “As a regular user of Bexleyheath station (long time commuter), I was amazed when I saw we were getting lifts. There are two perfectly good road bridges (with pavements) at either end of the station. To go from one platform to another using these existing bridges (rather than the station footbridge) takes but a few minutes. To my knowledge, no work was being done on the footbridge prior to the installation of the lifts began”. This is an interesting observation; my contact told me that the reason that the lift was being installed was that as maintenance work was being carried out on the passenger footbridge anyway, the installation of a lift was deemed to be cost effective, as contractors would already be working on the site. What Paul says is that this may not actually have been the case. If any other reader has information regarding this, please contact me at hugh.neal@gmail.com – you can remain completely anonymous if you so wish.

May 2014 marks the 30^th anniversary of the launch of Laser 558, the offshore radio station that for a brief period between 1984 and 1986 became the most popular music radio station in the UK.  Laser was known for its fast paced format “you are never more than a minute away from the music”, and exclusively employed American DJ’s, including some, like Charlie Wolf, who went on to become household names. It all sounded very glamorous, and nothing like any rather more staid British radio station of the period. Most listeners believed the story that the station was crewed and operated exclusively by Americans, and supplied from mainland Europe, and therefore operating completely legally. The reality was that whilst the broadcasters were all US citizens, the station and the supplies all came covertly from the UK – the main supply point was Herne Bay.  The Laser ship was called the M.V Communicator – it was a converted hydrographic survey vessel originally names the Guardline Tracker. The work to convert the ship to a marine broadcasting station was carried out in Port Everglades in Florida – if you ever see a rerun of the Miami Vice episode “Phil the Shill” (the one that guest starred Phil Collins) there is a long aerial tracking shot of Crockett and Tubbs driving through Port Everglades – and the M.V Communicator can clearly be seen whilst it was being converted to a radio ship. When Laser 558 first came on air from the North Sea, the station tried using a novel wire antenna suspended from a helium balloon. Whoever thought of this idea clearly had no concept of the weather frequently experienced in the area. The strong, gusty and changeable winds soon destroyed the balloon antenna, and a conventional tower array was built to replace it. Laser quickly picked up a massive following in both the UK and Europe. It had a strong, loud signal on Medium Wave, it played far more music that BBC Radio One, and operated a format of top 40 pop and familiar oldies, played back to back. The sound was slick and very professional, and soon listeners started to defect from local radio and BBC national stations to Laser. At this point the government became worried – they could not let this upstart pirate take all of their precious listeners from the BBC and ILR stations. A ship called the Dioptric Surveyor was despatched by the Department of Trade and Industry Radio Investigation Service to monitor both Laser 558 and Radio Caroline, in what became known as the “Eurosiege”. It was soon apparent that Laser, rather than Caroline was the real target. This was mainly due to the constant on air jibes and arch comments made by Laser DJ’s – most notably by Charlie Wolf, the station motor mouth. Soon a spoof record was released called ”I Spy for the DTI” by the Moronic Surveyors (actually the Laser DJ’s) which got heavy play on Laser, and got into the lower reaches of the charts. In contrast, Radio Caroline continued in their policy of not annoying the authorities, and they carried on pretty much unmolested. Eventually a mixture of running low on supplies, bad weather (the Communicator was not an ideal ship for the North Sea and its heavy swell – it rolled terribly, unlike the Radio Caroline ship the M.V Ross Revenge – a massive, former ice breaking trawler which was solid as a rock in rough seas) and a lack of advertising revenue caused the crew to bring the ship in, under escort from the DTI. The other reason for the failure of Laser was its management, which was pretty financially incompetent, and also a few suppliers that managed to con a large amount of cash out of the station for very little in return. The whole project lasted only around eighteen months, but it did shake up UK radio, which up until that time was legally restricted as to the amount of music it was allowed to play. The “needle time” rules dictated that fifty percent of broadcasting time had to be dedicated to speech; this was later relaxed when it was found that the audiences for Laser 558 were primarily attracted by the stations policy of “never more than a minute from the music”.  In contrast Radio Caroline continued at sea for another six years,  which was when my own involvement happened. Back when Laser and Caroline were both broadcasting to Northern Europe, I was still at school – I recall many occasions when there would be scuffles in the 6^th form common room when some pupils wanted to listen to Laser on the ancient radiogram we had, whilst I wanted to listen to Caroline. Strangely I cannot recall anyone wanting to listen to Radio One at the time. I think that just about says it all.

Going about as far as it is possible to go in the opposite scale of radio station, the photo above shows an old and abandoned building in the grounds of Erith and District Hospital. I have to make an appeal; if anyone has any information or period photos of Radio Erith when it was operational, could you please get in contact with me? So far, nobody has any memories or information about the long closed hospital radio station, and I can find nothing online either. If you volunteered on the station, or know someone who did, please drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

Bexley Police are being equipped with wearable video cameras (the Police terminology is Body Worn Video, or BWV) to record incidents for possible use as evidence. As you may have gathered from my previous postings, I have severe misgivings over the way in which face recognition technology can be misused in order to form a database which records where an individual goes, what they do when they get there, and a host of other personal behaviours. Despite this, my overall feeling in respect of the Police being equipped with cameras is that this is a good thing, both for the police, and for members of the public. It will remove the possibility of dispute in the event of an incident, in places where wearable cameras have already been deployed (including some U.S states) the level of disputes about what took place has dropped considerably once the video footage was released. It also protects the public – with the caveat that any cameras should be permanently on, and the video footage should be non editable by the police officer. Unfortunately I have received a letter in an Email from Chief Superintendent Peter Ayling, the Borough Commander, which contains some frequently asked questions on the subject. I it would appear that the cameras will be switched on and off at will by individual officers. Personal video recorders are becoming increasingly widespread, as the price falls and their storage capacity increases. It is getting quite usual to see private drivers fitting them to their car windscreen to record any potential road accident – for some reason the Russians seem particularly keen on this approach – though whether this has any reflection on their overall standard of driving, I could not say. Anyway, the letter I received was addressed to "Dear (insert name of stakeholder)" so I am not exactly being personally favoured! Some pertinent points from it are outlined below:-

I am writing to let you know that Bexley Borough has been selected to take part in the Metropolitan Police Service’s pilot of body worn video (BWV) equipment. You may have seen some debate and publicity around the use of these cameras in recent months. Our Borough will be taking part in the largest urban trial of this technology in the world to date. I think it is therefore essential to inform you as to what the pilot will look like locally. As always, I would be keen to hear feedback, so I would be grateful if you could cascade this information as you see fit. Below I have listed some ‘Frequently asked questions’ in respect of the cameras, and I hope they will prove informative. 

Which officers are using BWV? 

Front line emergency response officers from two teams on this Borough will be using the cameras, as well as armed response officers from the MPS Firearms command, who may be deployed on the Borough from time to time on patrol or in response to incidents. 

The reason only two teams are being issued with the cameras at the moment is because we would like to assess how productivity and performance is affected by the teams using the cameras as opposed to those teams without them. By having teams on the same Borough with and without cameras, this is the most efficient way of ensuring that other local factors remain the same. 

Why use BWV at all? 
 

BWV provides an additional option for officers to gather evidence at incidents. 

BWV cameras have already been used in the MPS and in other forces to good effect. The cameras can capture evidence of criminal behaviour and can help to ‘set the scene’ for the court at a later date. 

By capturing this evidence, officers can spend less time writing statements and completing paperwork at the station. This allows them to spend more time patrolling and responding to incidents in the community. 

The use of BWV in other countries has been shown to moderate the behaviour of people present at incidents, resulting in less of force by officers and reduced complaints against police. It is hoped this will help to ensure public confidence in police actions. 

Evidence from other forces in the UK has shown that, where BWV is key evidence, guilty pleas at the first opportunity at court rise significantly - this means reduced burdens across the Criminal Justice System, not just in policing. 

When will officers be using the BWV? Will it be ‘always on?’ 

No - the use of BWV will be ‘incident specific’ - officers will switch on the camera when they would ordinarily be considering recording an incident or interaction by conventional means - for example, a statement or notebook entry - or if they feel that there would be evidential value in recording the incident. 

Officers will, when practicable, tell those present when they are recording and when they are about to switch off the camera. They will usually only switch the camera off when the incident has concluded or where there is no further evidential value to be had in continued recording. 

To have the cameras ‘always on’ may result in private or confidential interactions with the public being recorded and also may represent a significant intrusion into the privacy of those who might be caught on camera. 

As well as this, continual recording will result in massive amounts of data being retained and stored by the police, which would result in increased logistical problems in back office functions. 

What is the pilot going to measure? How long will it last? 

At this stage the pilot is expected to last for the next financial year. 

The pilot will be measuring a number of outcomes including: criminal justice outcomes, complaints against police, use of force by police, amount of time saved in administration tasks and the impact on public confidence through the use of cameras. 

The pilot will compare the performance of those officers issued with the cameras against those without cameras. It is hoped that the pilot will be able to demonstrate improvements in these key areas. 

How does the BWV work? 

The BWV camera is a video and audio recording device. Depending on the model, the device is either mounted on the body or worn on a head mounting. 

The camera records footage onto an internal and secure hard drive. Footage recorded can then be uploaded to MPS servers for use as evidence at court or other proceedings. 

What about rights to privacy? 

It is understandable that some people may be concerned about officer’s recording their interactions with the public at incidents. They may be worried that footage concerning them may be held on police data servers. 

This is a key reason why officers will not indiscriminately record all interactions and activity. This is to ensure that any intrusion into private lives is kept to the minimum level necessary. 

All footage recorded on BWV in the MPS is subject to legal safeguards and guidance set by the Information Commissioner’s office and the Home Office. 

Footage that is not likely to be of evidential value will be removed from the system within a very short time - the current guidance is within 31 days. 

Footage that is retained is subject to regular review and, if no longer required or likely to be required as evidence, will again be weeded. 

People who have been recorded have the right to see footage of them that has been retained by the MPS. See our website - www.met.police.uk  for details on how to obtain this footage. 

How do I give feedback or find out more? 

A key consideration for the MPS pilot is to gauge feedback from the public and London’s communities about their feelings around BWV. 

You can give your feedback and/or comments to your local Safer Neighbourhoods Team or you can find out how to give feedback to the MPS at www.met.police.uk

Overall I think this trial is a good move; I just have reservations about the potential for a bad cop to switch the recording off midway through an encounter if they thought it might go badly for them if the footage was filmed and later reviewed. What do you think? Either leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Local historian Ken Chamberlain has been busy - he recently sent me the following piece on a historic steam engine that originally worked in Erith, before it was restored: In March 1932 a new Bagnall 0-4-0 steam locomotive was delivered to the Fraser and Chalmers engineering factory in Erith. For many years the engine was a familiar sight in Nordenfeldt Road, crossing West Street. It was made redundant in 1969 and sold to a private buyer, a member of the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre at Quainton Road. There it has been painstakingly restored and over the May Bank Holiday weekend was on display in full steam. The first photograph shows the engine working beneath the gantry of Messrs Talbot Estates in the late 1930s. The site is now redundant but the location is still recognisable from Sandcliffe Road, with the exterior wall of Fraser’s on the left. The houses to the right are those of Crusoe Road and Friday Road. The second photo (below) is the Loco fully restored and in steam at Quainton Road earlier this month. Only the colour has changed.

You may recall that not very long ago, Jeremy Clarkson test drove a giant, reproduction 1930's Blower Bentley, which instead of having the usual supercharged 4.5 litre engine, had a 27 litre V12 Rolls - Royce Merlin engine, as used in the Supermarine Spitfire. The car was a one - off project built to a customer special order by bespoke engineering company Bob Petersen Engineering. At the time, the owner of the one - off car was not mentioned. It obviously had to be a car enthusiast with a great deal of money, as the car was worth well in excess of a million pounds. Recently, American comedian and TV chat show host Jay Leno started a new, YouTube only television show called Jay Leno's Garage, which showcases cars from his collection - he and other experts talk about the model in question, then it is test driven. As well as being exceedingly wealthy, Jay Leno has reputedly got the World's largest private car collection - though in the nature of being private, this is impossible to verify. His collection is certainly huge with over 880 vehicles, and is housed in a giant warehouse on an industrial estate somewhere on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Understandably the precise location is kept secret. In a recent edition of the show, Jay Leno revealed that he was the owner of the 27 litre, Merlin engined Bentley, that Jeremy Clarkson had so adored. You can see the episode below - please feel free to comment. Enjoy.

Mother's Pride.

The photo above was taken by one of my confidential sources earlier this week. It shows the platforms and footbridge at Bexleyheath station. The reason that my informant took the photograph was that there is  construction work under way directly adjacent to the footbridge over the rails. From what can be seen, it is to install a passenger lift. This is excellent news for commuters from Bexleyheath, but it does beg the question, why is Bexleyheath getting a lift, when South Eastern have repeatedly refused requests to install a lift at Erith station, despite such a refusal being a contravention of the Equality Act 2010? I have contacted someone in a position to know about such matters, and I have been told that South Eastern and Network Rail are carrying out the lift construction as part of planned maintenance to the footbridge, as it is much cheaper to carry out such modifications whilst the bridge is being worked on anyway. A stand alone project would have been more expensive. It turns out that even Bexleyheath MP David Evennett was shocked that Bexleyheath was chosen over Erith, as Erith has a far worse accessibility problem. At Bexleyheath, there is a nearby bridge over the railway which can be easily used by those using wheelchairs or baby buggies – Erith has no such option. If you want to go to London, and cannot climb the footbridge steps, you have no option but to go to Dartford, two stops in the wrong direction, in order to use the lift there to change platforms to come back the other way. The reasons cited for choosing Bexleyheath over Erith also include a claim that the footfall at Erith is too low to justify a lift at this point. To my mind this is blatantly untrue. If you stand on the London bound platform (providing you can get to it) from around 6.30 on a weekday morning, you will see just how many people use the station. South Eastern’s usage figures are almost certainly distorted to read on the low side, as the only passenger data they will get on a daily basis will come from the Oyster card readers; many passengers, myself included, use paper tickets, and since there are no ticket barriers at Erith, there is no way to record the footfall accurately. The fact that Erith station has a car park that passengers are forbidden from using, and if you travel by car to the station, you end up being forced to park in nearby residential roads, though this is being stopped; there are already parking restrictions in Christ Church Avenue and Victoria Road. I am told that these restrictions are going to be widened to cover other roads around the station before the new Bexley College campus opens in September. Whatever the footfall for Erith station is now, it is inevitably going to increase. Not only will the new college attract passengers, but the massive increase in residential construction in the area will have an effect on commuting. Not only is Erith Park – currently the largest residential housing project in Europe – shortly coming to fruition, but, as mentioned last week, a further thousand houses and apartments may soon be built on the waste land, and former quarry located between Fraser and Bexley Roads. The residents are going to have jobs, and my guess is that many will need to travel to and from London. When these two large housing estates are factored in with all of the other smaller construction projects in the local area, it stands to reason that the demand for public transportation is going to explode. One does also wonder if the priority is being given to Bexleyheath station due to the demographic makeup of the passengers. Bexleyheath is generally regarded as being somewhat middle class, whilst Erith is regarded as working class. The North of the London Borough of Bexley is generally less favoured than the centre and South for this reason.

Some time ago I wrote describing how Tesco are shortly going to install display screens using facial recognition technology in their petrol station shops – the idea being that the screen will scan the shopper as they queue to pay for their fuel, and depending on the age and gender of the person, targeted adverts are played at the person. If this does not sound worrying enough, as the software improves and becomes more sophisticated,  it will be able to scan a database of previous customers to see if the shopper has used the outlet before. It can then check to see what the shopper previously bought and target adverts accordingly. There is a huge issue of invasion of privacy and lack of consent. If not only private companies, but government bodies employ facial recognition technology as a means of determining identity (which is already happening in the USA and China, for example), there are immediately problems when the system gets it wrong. At present, in ideal circumstances (good, even lighting, no rain or mist) the best facial recognition systems will be accurate about 97% of the time. That is a whole three per cent error rate. Unlike a PIN number or password, your face is not something you can change without resorting to surgery.  There have already been cases in the USA where mis – identification has had serious repercussions. In 2011 a blame free and conscientious driver called John Gass received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him that he was ordered to stop driving immediately. After Gass made a series of concerned phone calls to the Registry, he eventually was able to determine that he had been incorrectly identified by a facial recognition system as a serial motoring offender, when in fact he had never had a driving ticket in his life. When he queried this, the Registry of Motor Vehicles official said that it was John Gass’s “burden” to prove his innocence, as the pros of protecting the public outweighed the inconvenience of the wrongly targeted few. I must admit that this made my eyebrows rise. The USA is often touted as a shining example of a country that espouses personal liberty; this example would seem to contradict that view. This kind of situation is going to become increasingly common; some bars and nightclubs are looking at introducing a facial recognition system called Scene Tap. This analyses high definition CCTV camera footage from within each establishment and can establish the gender ratios in the bar, it can also determine the age of patrons, and link their facial image with online social networking sites (in their words) to “determine the relationship status, intelligence, education and income.” Scary stuff. All this is done without the permission – or even knowledge of the patrons. You may think this is all rather “Minority Report”, but Scene Tap is already deployed and in operation in over four hundred bars and night clubs around the USA, and it is inevitable that it will be in the UK very soon, if it is not already here on the quiet. Even if you as an individual have no problems with facial recognition, it does raise the issue of identity. Once the technology becomes ubiquitous, cheap and interconnected, it will only take one system to mis – identify you for your entire online identity to become suspect; you may not even realise it for some time, and may have no way of even knowing why you suddenly get turned down for a loan, or barred from a nightclub where you have formerly been a regular visitor. At least where governments are involved with things like this, there are usually established processes to identify and rectify mistakes. When it comes to private businesses there are no such constraints.

Last week I posted an image of an advert from Groom’s bakery from back in 1903. Subsequently I have been in contact with local historian Ken Chamberlain, who sent me the photo above (click on it for a larger view) and gave me some valuable background information. I must admit that until Ken contacted me,  I had no idea how Grooms “the hygienic bakery” became so successful and known all around the country.  After starting off with the West Street bakery, the business rapidly expanded; eventually they ended up building the large bakery in Belmont Road, Northumberland Heath. The site had a stables for the horses that pulled their vans, plus workshops for the company mechanics, farriers and coach builders. The most famous product created by Grooms was “Mother’s Pride” – bread that ended up being sold all over the country, and is still a favourite today. The horse drawn vans were still in use until the late 1950’s – more I think as an advertising and publicity tool, than as a practical means of delivery. My late Dad would often hitch a lift with a van when he was a boy – he knew several of the drivers; if the were not following a route he wanted to go on, he would then roller skate the rest of the way. By 1957 this was to change though. Grooms merged with the Rank, Hovis McDougall Group, although the family continued to run the Northumberland Heath bakery until 1959. The bakery is still on the same site today, and is now owned by British Bakeries; it produces a substantial amount of the bread eaten by Londoners and those further afield.

On Friday night I went out for a curry with an old friend. Nothing unusual there then. It did get me thinking; whilst the contents of the menu in most high street Indian restaurants are usually fairly similar, depending on the chef and the target market, the same is almost always not true of the drink available. It is almost without exception going to include three or four varieties of lager.  Apart from my personal preferences not including lager (too cold, too gassy, too tasteless) it strikes me as an opportunity for a curry house owner to do something to stand out from the crowd. Personally I think that real ale is a far better accompaniment to curry than lager is ; real ale does not fill you up with gas, for one thing. It tends to have a more robust, malty and hoppy flavour which works well with the strong flavours Indian spices create. I think the only down side with serving real ale in a curry house is one of shelf life. Once a cask has been opened, it needs to be used within three or four days before it goes off; I doubt that many curry houses would serve enough to justify it. I would like to hear your views on the subject – either leave a comment below, or Email me hugh.neal@gmail.com. More on ale later.

It would appear from what I can gather that Bexley Council have effectively pulled the plug on the Danson Festival permanently. It has been known for some time that the festival was being called off this year, due, so the council said to drainage problems made worse by the terribly wet conditions last Autumn and Winter. It was originally intimated that the festival would be back as normal next year. Now Councillor Don Massey has announced that substantial engineering work is required to fix the problems, and that the council currently does not have the money to carry out the work. Bearing in mind over 60,000 people visited the festival last year, to drop it completely is quite a brave move, especially in the light of the forthcoming council elections. My understanding was that the festival was pretty much self funding, and usually turned a modest profit. It showcased local clubs and not for profit groups, and gave a lot of good causes the opportunity to both raise awareness and also fund raise. Several readers have left comments on the News Shopper website stating that the real reason for the cancellation of the Danson Festival is that the wealthy people who live in the big houses around Danson Park do not want the noise and disruption that the festival brings. Compared with other boroughs in the area, Bexley does very little if anything in terms of public festivities or events; it seems to be very keen to be able to continue to boast that they have kept council tax rates the same as last year, which seems to involve making more cuts upon cuts. The same cannot be said of the wage bill of the council leaders, which, as Malcolm Knight of “Bexley is Bonkers” has repeatedly pointed out, are amongst the highest in Greater London.

I find that whenever I check the BBC News website for the weather, it is wrong. It might not be out by that much, but at around this time of year when the air temperature can vary quite widely, the difference of a couple of degrees can strongly influence your choice of clothing. Quite some time ago I found the answer to this quandary. Local resident Bob Hewitt has an amazing automated, digital weather station, which is internet enabled. The station has a website that can be accessed by anyone wanting to know what the weather is like in the Erith and Northumberland Heath area. I consult the site several times per day – the information available is very detailed – not only temperature, but wind strength and direction, rain level, humidity, barometric pressure and so on. Weather Display Live is an excellent web resource that I visit every day, and would highly recommend to you.  

The list of beers for next weeks' 9th Bexley Beer Festival has now been published - see the image above, and click on it for a larger view. The festival will run from the evening of Thursday 15th May at 5pm until Saturday the 17th May. You can see more details by clicking here. I plan on attending on Friday evening - usually the most popular day of the event. A full report will be published next week.

I have been passed some documentation regarding Bexley Council and the refurbishment work that they propose to undertake in Northumberland Heath. It is only right and fair that the area gets some money and attention, as both Erith and Bexleyheath, which border the town have both had considerable regeneration efforts in the last couple of years, but Northumberland Heath has until now been missed out. The council propose some fairly dramatic changes, quite a few of which may not actually be necessary or indeed desirable. The Northumberland Heath Community Forum have analysed the council proposals and countered with their own proposal document, which actually would involve significantly less council expenditure. Most of the proposed works will centre around Bexley Road, and the main shopping area. The council propose replacing the existing powder coated steel park benches with stone ones. There are concerns that this is not necessary; the existing benches are in pretty good condition, and only require a coat of enamel paint every couple of years. They also have the advantage of having a back, allowing people to lounge, whereas the proposed stone benches will not. Much of the weekday population of Northumberland Heath is elderly, and are those most likely to use the benches, and back support is a definite requirement, and the feedback from the forum is that a lick of paint on the current benches is all that is really required. Similarly, the council propose replacing much of the existing block paving and granite kerbs, when the existing paving is not in bad order at all. It would seem that a decent regime of weeding and some re-pointing would be sufficient – and would also save a wad of council (our) cash. The money saved by abandoning these works could be better spent on resurfacing the Mill Road car park, which currently is so cratered that it resembles the surface of the moon. The council also propose replacing many of the dented metal roadside barriers with new ones. This is laudable, but the feedback from the forum members is that this would only be practical if bollards were used to protect the barriers; otherwise passing lorries tend to clip and bend them within months of them being replaced. All in all, the works required to enhance Northumberland Heath shopping area are not that extensive, and a proportion of the money the council propose to spend could better employed, say in refurbishing the library, which is looking quite tatty at present. The counter proposal document from the Northumberland Heath Community Forum is well argued and presents what I consider to be a strong case. Whether the council choose to abide by their findings is something we will have to wait and see. More on this when new information becomes available.

Are you a FaceBook user? Chances are that most Maggot Sandwich readers will be, as it would seem to be the most pervasive social network round. If so, have you ever wondered just how much your personal data is worth to FaceBook? If you are interested in what can be done with your information, and who would want to buy access to it, there is a new web service called Digital Shadow. The website scrapes your FaceBook profile (after you grant access), creating its own profile of you that focuses on vulnerabilities. The access granted is similar to the access offered to cameras, location services, apps and other websites that users commonly associate with FaceBook. Digital Shadow spells out exactly what they have access to: "Watch Dogs Digital Shadow will receive the following info: your public profile, friend list, News Feed, relationships, birthday, work history, status updates, education history, groups, hometown, interests, current city, photos, religious and political views, follows and followers, personal description and likes and your friends' status updates and photos." So, pretty much anything and everything you've ever put on the Internet. The website also predicts your location if you have geotagging or location services turned on. It also estimates your salary and produces a very well educated guess of your passwords. The password generator pulls from your friends, pet names, interests, frequently used words, and more to auto formulate potential passwords. It then estimates the time it would take for the passwords to be tested against FaceBook's log in by a hacking program: over a million can be tested in about two minutes. After you have finished being scanned by Digital Shadow, you can easily remove the app from your FaceBook settings by logging into your account, selecting Settings, then Apps, and pressing the X next to Digital Shadow. While you're there, you should check out what other apps have permissions to use your data, because they're likely to be turning a profit on your digital presence. Unless you stop using social media completely, and delete — not just deactivate — your profiles, your data can always be mined. While Digital Shadow won't make that disappear, it will bring attention to the pieces of your personal life that are most useful as data points, offering you a chance to adjust privacy settings. I have had several people querying why I am not on FaceBook, or indeed any similar website. Now perhaps you can better understand why.

The World Wide Web is 25 years old this week. Many people think the World Wide Web and the Internet are one and the same, but they are not. The video below gives a little background explanation and history - watch and enjoy.

The satisfaction tour.

When the light and weather is right, parts of Erith can at times look positively exotic. The photo above shows the key worker apartments (called Tramway House) on the corner of Stonewood Road and West Street, right next to the new Bexley College site. The apartments overlook the Riverside Gardens and the River Thames in one of the nicest locations in the town. If the flats had been built in somewhere like Putney, they would be the thick end of a million pounds or so.

Only a matter of weeks after Erith KFC gave up in their bid to open their drive through around the clock, another local restaurant is bidding for a late – night licence. K’s Spice – the Nigerian restaurant in Pier Road, has submitted an application to Bexley Council to extend its opening hours; currently the place opens from 10am until 11pm, and the owners wish to extend this until 2am daily. I don’t think that the application will meet with success, as there are flats located above the shop unit, and opening into the early hours of the morning would undoubtedly cause noise and disturbance. It would be interesting to see if the council licensing team take other criteria into account when deciding whether to grant opening hour changes to food outlets. For example, should they take account of the restaurant’s “Scores on the Doors” food hygiene rating? If this is the case, then K’s Spice would be on a sticky wicket, as it only gets a rating of one out of a possible five stars for kitchen cleanliness. As I have written in the past (and many reader have agreed with) in my opinion, any restaurant that fails to meet a minimum of three out of five stars (which is described as being the lowest acceptable rating) should be compulsorily closed until such time as the place is deep cleaned, and new equipment installed so that  their rating meets or exceeds a three star rating. The “Scores on the Doors” rating sticker should also have to be displayed by law. I notice that whilst food outlets in Bexley hardly ever have their rating stickers displayed, food outlets in Dartford are far more likely to publicly show their stickers. I think this could at least part be because Dartford’s restaurants seem to overall have a higher standard of food hygiene. I was walking around Dartford Town Centre last weekend, and I noticed with satisfaction that almost all places had a four or five star rating, which they proudly displayed on their window sticker. I don't know the reason for the discrepancy between Dartford and Bexley, other than as we know, the London Borough of Bexley has the worst food hygiene ratings in the whole of the UK. Whether Bexley have less staff available to police the system, or Dartford better promote and foster good food handling and preparation techniques I don't know, but the message seems to be clear. If you are going out for a meal in the local area, you are probably better off going to Dartford if you want to avoid the possibility of food poisoning. Dartford has another point in its favour if you read comic books. News Stand Comics have opened a comic book store in the shop unit at the base of the clock tower opposite Dartford Station and behind the Orchard Theatre. It used to house the tourist information centre, but now is the home of a wide variety of comics, action figures and collectibles. Until now local comic fans had to go to Bluewater or London to buy the latest editions. Now there is somewhere more local to go. I wish them well.

Hearing of the sad death of actor Bob Hoskins this week, it did remind me of an incident that happened many years ago, not long after I had passed my driving test. I was accompanying a friend who was still a learner so that he could get some much needed practice (back in those days you could legally accompany a learner as soon as you had passed your test, unlike today). It was a Sunday afternoon, and we were driving along Romney Road in Greenwich, right outside the National Maritime Museum, and had stopped at a Zebra crossing.  There was a bang and a sudden jolt; momentarily I thought my friend had dumped the clutch and stalled the car. We then both realised that the car had been rear – ended by another vehicle. I looked over my shoulder and saw a large, dark green Jaguar XJ-6 saloon far too close for comfort.  I told my friend to pull over to the side of the road, and the Jaguar followed. The night before this incident, ITV had shown the television premiere of “The Long Good Friday” – a movie which is now regarded by many critics as the finest British gangster film ever made. I had watched it, and was much taken by the performance of Bob Hoskins, as the tough and resourceful London gang leader who tries to move into property development, and unwittingly ends up on the wrong side of the IRA. Anyway as we checked the very minor damage the bumper – little more than a small dent if I recall, who should get out of the Jaguar than Bob Hoskins himself! As he came over to us, a woman at a nearby bus stop came over and started jabbering “I saw it all – he rear ended you – it’s all his fault!” Hoskins turned to her and said “it OK lady, I have it under control”. He turned to us and said “completely sorry – all of my fault”, and the interloper cut in a second time with more nagging. Hoskins now growled at her “I have told you – SHUT IT!” Which did the trick – the woman was so taken aback she was silenced. He pulled out his wallet, saying “can we sort this out like adults? Would £200 do to fix your bumper?” Bearing in mind the entire car was probably worth a maximum of £200 back then, my friend accepted gladly – he knew he was getting an amazingly good deal. Bob Hoskins was friendly and open, though we only spent a few minutes with him, he seemed like a genuine, completely down to earth bloke.

The advert above was first published back in 1903. It does rather infer that other local bakers were not hygienic - I am not sure if such an advert would be permitted nowadays. Still, it does show that even 111 years ago, a local food producer was very conscious about cleanliness. Something that some local outlets today seem to have forgotten.

Have you ever dug an old computer, games console, or other bit of long forgotten old electronic kit out of a cupboard or loft, only to find that the original, light grey plastic case had turned a nasty tobacco brown colour? Many people think that this is just a bit of ingrained dirt – but the staining does not come off, however much you scrub. This unwanted phenomenon has been known for several years, and has been researched by a number of people keen on restoring vintage home computers. The problem is caused by the special kind of plastic used to manufacture the cases. It is called ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene – you can see why even the scientists just call it ABS!) The plastic is made of three different substances, which when mixed together in certain proportions give the plastic its strength, flexibility and impact resistance. The trouble with ABS plastic is that it is very flammable unless steps are taken to do something about it. Scientists came up with a flame retardant chemical that could be added to the ABS plastic mix to stop it combusting. The chemical was one of the CFC group – which you may recall used to be widely used, until  it was discovered that they caused serious damage to the Ozone layer, and were then internationally banned in the 1990’s. Back in the 1980’s though, the chemicals were used in all sorts of ways. The discolouration of ABS plastic cases is caused by a chemical reaction when strong sunlight containing a high percentage of Ultra Violet (UV) light is allowed to shine onto the plastic. Any computer left on a desk in an office, or games console left in a kid’s bedroom would suffer this. The UV light causes the element bromine from within the CFC fire retardant to slowly leak out of the mix – bromine, which is naturally a brown colour – and this is what causes the tobacco – like staining to the ABS plastic. A group of hobbyists, some of whom have a background in chemical engineering have worked on a way to remove this horrible discolouration which can seriously affect the looks of what otherwise would be some attractive and historically important computers. They have created a cleaning gel called RetroBrite, which when pasted onto the discoloured ABS plastic surface of an old piece of electronic kit, then exposed to a UV lamp for a few hours, will completely remove the brown discolouration and return the object to an “as new” appearance. For various technical and legal reasons, this bunch of enthusiasts have been unable to patent RetroBrite, and instead publish online their formula for making it, and instructions on how to use it. To be honest, RetroBrite is pretty nasty, corrosive stuff, and has to be treated with caution. You can read more about it here.  If you ever see RetroBrite available for retail sale, it has been produced by a third party, not the original creators. Because one of the active ingredients in RetroBrite is high strength Hydrogen Peroxide, it is illegal to transport by post or courier. Some shady characters have offered pre – mixed RetroBrite bottles for sale on EBay. This actually contravenes the website’s rules, as it is regarded as a hazardous chemical. If you ever see RetroBrite for sale, it is dodgy. Making it from the recipe on the RetroBrite website is perfectly acceptable, however, and to be honest, it works best when it is freshly made. You can read a detailed account as to how it is made, and how it actually works by clicking here.

I seem to be having a bit of a Dartford oriented theme this week; readers may recall that a couple of years ago that I observed that whilst Liverpool never ceases to find excuses to celebrate the Beatles, and their links with the city, Dartford seems almost embarrassed to be the home of the Rolling Stones in comparison. OK, you have the Mick Jagger Centre, but that is about as far as it goes. Some years ago a campaign was started to get a blue plaque erected on Platform 2 of Dartford Station, to commemorate the place where Keith Richards and Mick Jagger first met on returning from buying obscure blues albums in Soho. They discovered they shared a deep love for the music, and the rest, as they say is history. The plaque campaign came to nothing, and currently there is no form of commemoration at all. One thing has changed though. A local company has started running something called the Satisfaction Tour, which describes itself as “Join us on a fascinating and fun – filled coach tour of Dartford – Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ home town. Discover where Mick and Keith grew up and met before the formation of the Rolling Stones, the world’s greatest rock and roll band. Tour guests staying at the Hilton Dartford Bridge Hotel will be collected from the hotel and taken to Dartford Railway Station, where the tour begins. The tour will then take you onto the places associated with Jagger and Richards early years, such as visits to their childhood homes and schools. Dartford Railway Station where Keith and Mick became reacquainted on platform 2 in October 1961; The hospital where they were born; Keith's teenage home; Holy Trinity Church where Mick was christened and Keith sang in the choir; Len Goodman's Dance Studios; Keith's childhood home where we visit the garden and his bedroom. Near here you will have the opportunity to stop for refreshments. Mick's childhood home; Wentworth Primary School where Keith and Mick first met; Dartford Technical College where Keith attended (now Wilmington Grammar); Mick's teenage home; Dartford Grammar School where Mick attended.” I would imagine that this would generate a lot of interest amongst foreign Stones fans, though personally paying a tour fee of £32.50 to stand on Dartford Station and then to look at Len Goodman’s dance studios (which incidentally are situated above a kebab shop in Market Street, Dartford) has a somewhat limited appeal. I hope the tour does well. You can read more about it, and see some vintage photos of the legendary rockers if you click here. 

Last week I featured Walnut Tree House, which until 1932 used to occupy the site now the home to Erith Council Offices. Walnut Tree House was owned by John Parish, a successful businessman who owned Erith Ballast Wharf on the banks of the River Thames, and also the ballast and loam pit in what is now the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road. Once the pit was exhausted, it was decided that the great big quarry was ideal for use as a sports venue. Erith Cricket Club, Erith Football Club and Erith Shooting Club all used the facilities. A later ballast and loam excavation site was located on the land sided by Bexley Road and Fraser Road, which was eventually worked out in 1970. Since then it has been unused, though as Malcolm Knight of Bexley Is Bonkers has pointed out, there are rumbles that the site may finally get redeveloped – it got purchased by an Essex based property development company called the Anderson Group back in January, most likely as a housing estate. The situation is still far from decided. I will be keeping tabs on it. Other planning news indicates that the traveller pony that has been living on a piece of waste land at the end of James Watt Way may be in danger of losing its home. Bexley Council are discussing the potential redevelopment of the old RMC Aggregates site (currently in temporary use by Abbey Car Breakers as an overflow from their main site) and the adjacent river front land, including the area currently occupied by the pony. They are keen for the site to be used for industrial or commercial purposes; I quote:- “The eastern part of the site offers opportunity to make use of the river frontage. Accordingly there is a preference for industrial and commercial uses. As these are in close proximity to existing and potential residential areas it is necessary to ensure that new industrial and commercial development is of high environmental standard, especially where close to residential properties”. It will be interesting to see where they go with this. More news as it arrives.

The ninth Bexley CAMRA Beer Festival is almost upon us; it runs from the 15^th to the 17^th of May, and is held at the Old Dartfordians Sports Club in Bexley Village. It is an excellent venue, and is much better served by public transport than the old venue, which used to be Sidcup Rugby Club (a great venue, but miles from anywhere and a pain to get to and from).  Not only is the Old Dartfordians Club far easier to travel to and from, but it is in fairly close proximity to Bexley Village itself – which is helpful if one fancies a post festival curry, as there are several Indian restaurants in the town that display a three star or higher “Scores on the Doors” rating. I will be covering the festival in greater detail after the event.

I received the following message in the week from a local musician and Vox enthusiast, following my piece on the connection between Vox and Erith. "I am contacting you about your recent MS story about the Stones and/or The Beatles visiting the Vox factory in  Erith. I would refer you to Jim Elyea's excellent book "Vox Amplifiers - The JMI Years" Vox's main facility was at 119 Dartford Rd. According to Jim's book, JMI production moved to the Erith building in 1965 and production continued there despite a fire on December 1 1965, it is not clear whether Vox actually owned the building as it also housed another Royston Industries company Burndept's Ltd (JMI was partly owned by Royston at this point). In January 1967 there were 150 employees at Erith. The Vox factory in Erith was closed in 1970. Apparently Mick and Keith were regular visitors to the Dartford factory as they were Dartford boys themselves but all reliable sources confirm that the Beatles never visited the Vox factory in Dartford or Erith. The Kinks, also Vox users, never visited the factory as "it was too dangerous for Muswell Hill boys to go to Dartford". Tony Hicks, lead guitarist with The Hollies was a frequent visitor, as were the Dave Clark Five. Hank Marvin brought his red Fender Stratocaster that he had bought at Jennings shop at 100 Charing Cross Road into the Dartford factory one day because he was having trouble keeping it in tune...the powers that be simply decided to give him a new one. The Charing Cross Road shop was more likely to have been frequented by the stars of the time. Much more information including photos, lists and details of JMI employees can be found in Jim's excellent book ".

Local bus company Stagecoach buses are currently testing new, hybrid engine double decker buses. On Tuesday afternoon I saw one running on the 602 school bus route. The very smart looking, brand new bus was in the middle of Bexley Road at the bus halt in front of the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. It had broken down! The driver and another Stagecoach person (possibly a mechanic) were trying to restart the vehicle, which appeared to be completely dead, apart from working hazard warning lights. These vehicles are largely reliant on computer control, and I would not have been surprised if there was a computer related problem – this is one of the most common causes of faults on the networker trains used by South Eastern. I have witnessed this whilst on the platform at both Cannon Street and Dartford stations. The driver could not get the train to start up  - it had completely frozen. He ended up doing what many PC users do in such circumstances – he switched it off, then back on again. I suspect that the bus crew would probably end up having to try the same technique. I hope that the teething troubles are soon overcome, as it would be a great move for Stagecoach to replace the older vehicles in their fleet with more economical and lower emission buses. Ideally they would go for Hydrogen fuel cell powered buses, as have run in and around Waterloo in the past. The trouble with these zero emission vehicles (OK, they emit a little water vapour, but that is it) is that currently they are prohibitively expensive to purchase. Hopefully as the technology matures, the costs involved will come down and we will have many hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles.

Word reaches me from one of my confidential sources that the closure last Wednesday of The British Music Experience exhibition at the O2 Arena was long overdue.  My source, who had some involvement with the project in the past wrote “It was a fabulous exhibition with interesting exhibits and lots of audio visual interaction, but unless you went around it slowly and logically there was almost too much to take in. The ticket booth was set up on the assumption that there would be huge queues lining up, but I found both the 02 and the British Music Experience like a ghost town, and sometimes I saw more staff than visitors. The entry fee was very high indeed - it was always my view that the place could not survive”. This is all a great pity. From my understanding the reason for the closure is that their sponsors refused to renew their support for the 2014 / 2015 season; the Experience is now looking for a new home. I wonder if a local venue might make a good place for The British Music Experience might be the former Woolwich Granada Cinema? It is currently being used as a cathedral by the Christ Faith Tabernacle Church, who seem to have made a very good job of restoring the old Art Deco building, which has Grade II listed status, so I very much doubt if they would be interested, which would be a pity, as the Granada has strong historical musical connections;  it was used in the 1950’s and 60’s as a live music venue as well as a cinema. Buddy Holly held some gigs in 1958 (one of which my late Dad attended), Roy Orbison, and even the Beatles played the place back in 1963 – though I doubt they would have been heard over the screaming!

The video to end this week is a curiosity. It, along with several others, has been made by a professional Hollywood film editor. He's taken an episode of Gerry Anderson's "Space:1999" and intercut it with an episode of the original "Battlestar Galactica" to tell a completely new story. It really does go to show just how much a good editor can do to influence a film. It is very well done; for the most parts you cannot "see the joins". Feel free to leave a message below, or Email me directly at hugh.neal@gmail.com.