Erith Fun Day 2017.

The photos above were taken by me yesterday at the 2017 Erith Fun Day, which took place on the large field that is located behind Erith Leisure Centre. The event was bigger than last year; I would estimate that it was approximately one third larger in terms of both the number of stalls and the number of attendees. The weather was overcast, and there were occasional showers of rain, but overall not too bad for a British Summer. Some people say that Erith has no sense of community; I would beg to differ - the Fun Day shows just how much a sense of community that the local area has. The event grows bigger by the year, and the number of voluntary groups represented carries on increasing, which can only be a good thing.

Following the recent problems with illegal bikers in the area, it is interesting to see that a precedent may now have been set in the way that criminal bikers and scooterists are dealt with under the law; On Tuesday you may have  seen that the BBC News website covered a story about a large group of over 100 illegal bikers, who on the 31st October last year, rode through Leeds town centre on pavements and through pedestrianised areas, causing alarm amongst local pedestrians. The organiser of the huge event was a scumbag called David Armitage, who was actually not one of the participants, but nevertheless due to his setting up of the event on social media and promoting the whole illegal enterprise, was sentenced to two years in jail for the offence. Another twelve riders who took place in the large scale disturbance were sentenced to between twelve and fourteen months in jail. The judge said their actions on 31 October could "not be tolerated". Armitage, 26, had been filmed on 31 October telling riders to "shut down" the city centre. Jailing him for two years, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: "This is a case which calls for a deterrent sentence. Behaviour of this sort, having serious effects on this city, cannot be tolerated.". This kind of robust policing and subsequent sentencing is precisely what The London Borough of Bexley and other London boroughs really require. At present the “softly softly” approach has proved ineffective, and from the dialogue I had with the Borough Commander of Dagenham and Redbridge Police during the radio discussion programme I was a contributor to last week, it is clear that stronger measures are to be taken to combat illegal riders in and around London in future; it may well be where Leeds leads, London will follow. More on this issue in the weeks to come.

The leaflet shown above was distributed around parts of Slade Green and Erith at the beginning of last week; As you can see, it contains some very alarming and serious claims. Many people who were in receipt of the leaflet have been extremely worried about its contents. I have been in discussion with fellow local blogger Malcolm Knight of the excellent Bexley is Bonkers about the situation, and he posted his thoughts on Wednesday after I forwarded him scans of the leaflet. Malcolm has the freedom to post multiple times in the week, whereas the Maggot Sandwich has a set publication date of early on Sunday afternoons. Malcolm and I have both investigated the lurid claims made in the leaflet, and have jointly come to the conclusion that they are for the most part pretty far – fetched. I have had private words with a number of people involved with the Bexley Regeneration Consultation Project, and off the record it has been said that it is pretty much a “sticking a finger in the air” exercise at present, and that a lot of the suggestions included in the report will never see the light of day. The much touted extension to the Crossrail development that Bexley Council seem to regard as almost a done deal is actually very far from it. An extension would require a new Act of Parliament, and a very substantial fresh investment; since the whole Paramount London Theme Park is now very much in doubt due to the withdrawal of Paramount from the project in the last couple of weeks, the motivation to extend the line from Abbey Wood as far as the Swanscombe Peninsula is now no done deal. More on this issue below. The London Borough of Bexley does have ambitious and far reaching aspirations regarding their thirty year plan for the development of the borough, but the classic impediments of lack of money and inertia from local stakeholders usually mean that few long term projects ever seem to amount to anything. I note that a number of aspirational projects have been outlined, not least the proposed tram / trolley bus system which would purportedly run through Erith to Dartford via James Watt Way / Crescent Road and then on  through what was the historic industrial railway route which ran under the Appold Street Bridge, and then Eastwards, following the River Thames towards Dartford. If this was run using zero emissions transportation technology, it could be an interesting new travel system – and one of particular appeal to me, as it would run past the bottom of my garden. Having said that, I really would not hold your breath, as the chances of it actually happening are in my opinion vanishingly small. The situation regarding the development of the planned £3.2 billion entertainment resort on the Swanscombe Peninsula has taken an unexpected turn after Paramount recently pulled out of the development; it was anticipated by many observers that the development would be put on hold for a period whilst a new brand partner was sourced, but on Wednesday of last week, London Resort Company Holdings has announced a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Port of Tilbury London Limited to use the port and its facilities as a main location for storing and barge operations in the construction phase of the park. This signals that the development is to go ahead as originally planned, just without the involvement of Paramount. This may be for one of two specific reasons; either London Resort Company Holdings have as I suggested recently, already found a new theme partner in another studio, or, more worryingly they are now gambling on another partner coming along during the build phase, or they are now planning on “going it alone” without a theme partner at all. I feel that if the third option turns out to be the case, then it would be a recipe for disaster, as I have previously written. Nevertheless the developers seem to be optimistic; in an interview with the News Shopper, Charles Hammond, Group Chief Executive from Forth Ports, owners of the Port of Tilbury, said: “The Port of Tilbury is ideally located as a hub for LRCH’s proposed major construction project in Kent. At Tilbury we are committed to encouraging the increased use of the River Thames for major construction projects. By using the River Thames, there is not only a reduction in the road miles impact but it also helps to reduce congestion on the road network. At Tilbury, LRCH will benefit from our expertise in warehouse consolidation, handling services as well as water-borne transportation.” The £3.2 billion park is aiming to open doors in 2022 and submit for planning permission later this year. If planning is granted the project will create 33,000 jobs during construction and operation. The park expects to receive approximately 15 million visitors per year. Time will tell.

I took the photo above yesterday afternoon in Manor Road; it shows one of the newest Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 Series 2 double deck bus that operates on the 99 route between Woolwich and Bexleyheath. The bus in question had recently broken down; you can see the driver on his mobile phone, calling the depot for a repair engineer. The passengers had been picked up by a following 99 bus. I understand that some of these new buses have problems with their zero emission Stop / Start systems, which use a large flywheel to store energy whilst stationary. Whether this was the problem with the bus photographed, I really don't know. More on local buses a bit later on.

I have been trying to find out what has happened to local eel fisherman Dave Pearce, who used to operate his eel fishing business out of a small boat which used to be moored on a buoy off Erith Jetty; I have heard nothing from him since his last posting online, which was in November 2013. It is been silent since then. I wonder if the last eel fisherman on the River Thames has now retired? Back in 1981 there were around thirty eel fishermen, over half of whom made a living from fishing in the river Thames off Erith. The irony is that eels have become rarer, and their price has subsequently risen to the point that nowadays very few traditional pie and mash shops sell jellied or stewed eels, as they have become too expensive for their main customers, who often are retired people on a budget. Several recent TV cooking shows have given the impression that eating eels is moving upmarket, and that smoking and barbecuing the fish is becoming increasingly popular. Bearing in mind how eel fishing has formed part of the historical culture of Erith, it is remarkable just how little the humble eel is celebrated locally. Perhaps something roughly analogous to the Whitstable Oyster Festival could be set up in Erith? After all, the Oyster Festival has been tremendously successful and brings visitors and business to Whitstable, to the point where it is now the commercial and social highlight of the year. Perhaps something like it could be established for an "Erith Eel Extravaganza" could be set up? What do you think? Over a decade ago, we had an Erith Multicultural Festival, which involved lots of food stalls along the high Street, and dragon boat races on the river, along with a big firework display in the evening. Perhaps an "Erith Eel Extravaganza" could be organised along similar lines? I concede that we might have a bit of an image problem; you think of oysters and you think of James Bond, whereas when you think of eels, you think of Alf Garnett. Eels have been a working class staple food since Roman times, and ironically until relatively recently, so were oysters, but overfishing of oysters caused them to become rare, and consequently they went up market – exactly the same thing is happening to the humble eel nowadays. Is the time right for an eel revival and a new image? Should Erith be nailing eels to the mast (poor analogy, but you see where this is going). Should we be celebrating the Erith eel, or is it just a sad footnote in history? What do you think? Do give me your feedback; you can comment below, or Email me to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association have published the following reports on local crime and community safety issues this week:- “Please be advised that the RSPCA will be going door to door within Bexley borough fundraising until 30th July. Always check charity collectors identification before passing on your contact details. If in doubt, contact the RSPCA directly rather than relying on a contact number that the collector may give you. Thanks to Senior Engineer Graham Wood at London Borough of Bexley for the advance notice of upcoming re-surfacing works on the North Cray Road starting 20th July. With the increase in motorbike and scooter theft in the Borough, the following link to the Met's website highlights the 'Be Safe' initiative to help combat such crime and help owners reduce the chance of becoming the next victim. From the Barnehurst Safer Neighbourhoods Police Team:- “Sadly we have had a burglary reported in Westfield Road, Barnehurst. Entry was gained to a house via the front UPVC door which was NOT double locked. Please make sure that you lift the handle to engage the locking system and lock with the key. If it’s not double locked then it’s NOT locked and will take a burglar just seconds to open the door. We welcomed the Barnehurst Beavers to the police station on Wednesday evening, they learnt about what the police do and got to examine some of our equipment as well as having a tour around our custody suite. The evening finished with the taking of fingerprints and an interesting question and answer session. A big Thank you to East Wickham and St Michaels SNT for their assistance. We now have 235 followers on our twitter account, thank you for your support, we would like more, please follow us @MPSBarnehurst for updates regarding what the team are up to and crime prevention advice”. From the Belvedere team:- “This week the team held a meeting at the Recycling Centre, Norman Road with representatives from Bexley Council Roads, ASB Team, local Councillor and the Roads Traffic Policing team. The issue of nuisance motorbikes using the road as a race track is causing major issues for the recycling centre. They gather en-masse and basically block the road. The purpose of the meeting was to try and come up with plans on how to deal with this issue jointly with Bexley Council, the Police and the Recycling Centre. Overall it was a productive meeting and we will be implementing the ideas in the coming weeks to try and put a stop to this problem. The team also had a meeting with the Bexley Council ASB officers with regards to the issue of street drinking on Picardy Street. As with the Norman Road issue, we will be working with the local council to try and curb the nuisance this is causing. We have recently received several neighbour dispute reports in various places on the ward. All we ask is that, if neighbours don’t like each other, just ignore and move on. A lot of people are becoming fixated with each other which is making the issues worse. Mediation is a good way forward, or just simply sitting down together and talking things through calmly. Unfortunately the latter is becoming a thing of the past. Our next Police surgery will be at ASDA, Lower Road on 18/07/17 at 17:00.” From the Erith Safer Neighbourhood Team:- "A female was arrested and charged for shoplifting goods worth £288.00 from Matalan Store, Riverside shopping Centre. A male was stopped and searched in Avenue Road and found to be in possession of Cannabis. Prolific shoplifter has been arrested, charged and sentenced to four months for stealing goods to the value of £100.00 from Argos, Riverside shopping Centre. PC Brown arrested a male wanted for failing to appear at court for Theft of a Motor Vehicle. The team have recruited four Ward Panel members and eleven potential Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators. Talks have been given by PC Couzens to the students at Christchurch School and the Rainbows. PCSO Winch has attended the summer fete at St Augustine Church along with Northend Ward. PC’s Brown and  Couzens have been conducting arrest enquiries at various addresses to trace wanted offenders. A female suffered a cardiac arrest while at the Riverside Shopping Centre. She was promptly and fortunately treated by an off duty nurse and cardiologist before PC Couzens assisted in transporting the patient to hospital where we understand that she is currently recovering. There have been two theft of number plates from motor vehicles, one in Bexley Road the other in Francis Road". The Thamesmead East Team report:- “Our Ward Panel meeting was held on Wednesday 5th July, Priorities agreed by the members are, Drug Abuse, Motor Vehicle are Anti- Social Behaviour. Promises agreed by the members are, Fly- Tipping, Engagement with youth/elderly and recruiting Neighbourhood Watch members. Local Ward Officers attended the Atrium Community Centre, Middle Way for the reopening of the Over 50s Hub. While on routine patrol, PC Nana and PC Pruden discovered a stolen motor vehicle parked up in Thamesbank Place. It had been reported stolen in March 2017 from the Lewisham area. The victim was updated, and the vehicle was recovered to Charlton Car Pound re forensics. Male arrested for a number of theft offences was sentenced to prison for 16 weeks. After the team conducted extensive CCTV enquiries regarding an assaulted that occurred in May 2017, a male has been charged with Actual Bodily Harm, and will appear at Court next month".

I have been sitting on a particular story for a while, as I was unable to get it properly verified by an independent source. It turns out that the story was true, and has now broken on several local news outlets. Extreme right wing group Britain First has been holding martial arts training sessions in the Erith Leisure Centre in Avenue Road. The racist, anti-pretty much everything group – who aspire to many of the same hateful ideologies as the jailed Joshua Bonehill (of whom I have written extensively in the past) have been using Erith Leisure Centre for “training” sessions for a while now. I am led to believe that the members of Britain First masqueraded as employees of a security company on a series of training days. The former leader of Britain First, a very unsavoury sounding chap called Paul Golding was jailed last year after he contravened a court order forbidding him from approaching every Mosque in England and Wales, when he organised a mass invasion of a mosque. As well as being banned from all mosques himself he was also prohibited from encouraging others to do so under the terms of the court order.  Nine days after the injunction - which prohibited entering any mosque in England and Wales without prior invitation – and was imposed in August last year, Golding drove four Britain First members to the Al-Manar Centre in Cardiff for a "mosque invasion". He ended up being sent to prison for a month as a result. The same group of bigoted individuals have been learning hand to hand combat locally in the sports centre; their publicity material states that disciplines taught include “Martial Arts, Krav Maga, close protection, knife defence and much more.” It was accompanied by fifteen  images showing mostly middle aged men, learning techniques as well as one posed shot with eight men standing arms crossed and looking at the camera.  Mr Golding, who was a Swanley town councillor for the British National Party from 2009 to 2011, appears to be among the men in the pictures. I understand that a member of the public alerted Parkwood Leisure, the company that operates Erith Leisure Centre on behalf of Bexley Council, and they then took action to prevent Britain First using the facility. I am not surprised that this ultra – right wing hate party chose to operate under the radar in the local area; I am sure that many would not wish Erith to be associated with such individuals.

Changes are being proposed to the bus services in parts of The London Borough of Bexley; Transport for London (TfL) have made the following announcement:- "The Elizabeth line serves Abbey Wood and Woolwich from December 2018. We have reviewed bus routes serving Abbey Wood and Woolwich, looking at how the introduction of the Elizabeth line will impact travel habits, the overall bus demand in the area as well as and other factors such as new developments. As a result, we are proposing to introduce a new bus route – numbered route 301 – and make some changes to routes 129, 161, 178, 180, 244, 291, 469, 472 and B11. Our proposals range in scale depending on the route to help us better match future demand with space available on the bus.  Our review of bus services in Abbey Wood, Woolwich and the surrounding areas has identified places where demand is likely to change following the introduction of the Elizabeth line, as well as areas that have no direct bus link to the new Elizabeth line stations at present. We are proposing to make the changes outlined above in response to this. The current bus links between Bexleyheath and Abbey Wood on routes B11 and 229 follow an indirect routing. The introduction of route 301 would provide a high frequency, direct route, saving 10 minutes journey time compared to route 229 and seven minutes compared to route B11. In addition, it would create new bus links from the south-eastern section of Long Lane where there is currently no direct bus service to Abbey Wood – an estimated 1200 households would gain a direct connection. Although we would be reducing the frequency of route B11, by introducing route 301 there would be an extra 4 buses an hour to the south of Abbey Wood on Brampton Road and Long Lane, while maintaining sufficient capacity elsewhere on route B11 such as the Hillsgrove Estate. With extra capacity between Abbey Wood and Thamesmead via Bentham Road provided by route 301 and the conversion of route 244 to double deck buses, it would no longer be necessary for route B11 to serve Thamesmead town centre. Shortening route B11 so that it terminates at Yarnton Way should help to improve the reliability of the route over the remaining section. However this change would mean that customers who use route B11 to travel from Harrow Manor Way and Thamesmead to areas to the south and east of Abbey Wood would need to change buses to complete their journey. Route 472 currently provides the main connection between Thamesmead, Woolwich and North Greenwich. Once the Elizabeth line is running, we expect less people to travel by bus across Woolwich from Thamesmead to North Greenwich. The proposed frequency reduction of the 472 reflects this. Even with this reduction of frequency, the introduction of route 301 would mean that the number of buses between Thamesmead and Woolwich would stay about the same as they are now. Similarly, the proposed diversion of route 180 to North Greenwich would mean that the total number of buses travelling between Woolwich and North Greenwich would remain broadly the same. Diverting route 472 to run via Western Way would shorten journey times between Thamesmead and Woolwich by around two minutes compared to the current routing via Nathan Way, which would served by route 301 instead. Extending route 472 to Abbey Wood station would create new links to North Greenwich from Abbey Wood and South Thamesmead. It would also provide an increase in capacity between the eastern side of Thamesmead and Abbey Wood, which would help to relieve crowding on route 229. South east of Abbey Wood on the Woolwich Road corridor, route 99 would provide a link to the Elizabeth line at Woolwich. Diverting route 469 so that it serves Woolwich Road would create a more convenient connection to the Elizabeth line at Abbey Wood station, and at the same time free up capacity on route 99. Customers who currently use the 469 to travel from Abbey Road to areas west of Abbey Wood each day would need to use route 229 instead and change at Abbey Wood. Extending route 180 to The Quarry, Erith would mean there are three bus routes running on the Erith, West Street – Abbey Wood corridor which would help to ensure there would be no capacity issues on Abbey Road or Woolwich Road. It would provide new links from the industrial areas on Church Manor Way and the new Quarry development to the Elizabeth line. These changes would mean that route 180 would no longer serve Fisher’s Way. At the other end of route 180, diverting the route to North Greenwich would mean that some passengers would have to change buses to complete their current journey. Most of these journeys are travelling to and from Lewisham and Greenwich town centres, where there are interchange options with other high frequency bus services". What do you think of the proposed changes? Do they affect you in a positive or negative way? Leave your comments below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Riverside Fish and Steak restaurant in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre continues to get rave reviews from diners; Comments left on review site Trip Advisor include:- “This must have been the fifth or sixth time we have eaten in this restaurant since it opened. The restaurant and toilets are always spotless and the service which may not be the fastest is always good and attentive. The menu is varied, tasty and good value for money. This restaurant is just consistently good with the standards set across the board in the beginning never wavering or faltering”. Another satisfied customer wrote:- “Visited this great little eatery with my wife. Had rib eye with rice and the missus had the same with cheesy chips. Great menu choices for fish, meat and other options. Very well priced. Very attentive young lady who happily would pour your drinks at the table or leave you to your own if wished. Really diverse choice of drinks for the size of establishment and reasonably priced. Food quality was outstanding. Thoroughly recommend and will be back. Long overdue in the area. Well done”. A third commented:- “A much needed local eatery. New and very clean. This unit is both a restaurant and a takeaway, but don't be misled, the restaurant is not just a few tables in a takeaway. The menu is not extensive but is very focus see on simple whether you order fried fish, grilled fish or grilled steaks they are always good. Just like the food there is a simple wine list. Since opening in late in 2016 we now go there at least once a fortnight. Whilst I have the superb grilled fish my wife often has the lunchtime menu in the evening (nothing seems to be too much trouble)”. It is great to see a new and innovative restaurant making such a favourable impression on local diners. For too many years, Erith has been a “ dormitory town” – local residents have had to travel to Upper Belvedere, Northumberland Heath or Bexleyheath if they wanted to go out for an evening meal that did not involve McDonald’s or KFC. The team behind Erith Riverside Fish and Steak have certainly made a destination venue; we just need several more such eateries and a decent pub in the town (I don’t count The Running Horses, as it is a sad shadow of its former self, and desperately needs to be taken over by a new owner with money to invest in the place). What would you like to see in the area and why? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week shows further work on the Crossrail development, specifically the final journey of the Plumstead based tunnel concreting machine, now that it has completed its work. Do give the short video a watch and let me know what you think.

Bollards!

The building in the above photo is one of the landmarks of Erith. It is the first thing many visitors see when they enter the town for the first time, but it is also one of the least memorable. The large and nowadays rather run down and scruffy brick building is called Electricity House – though many locals are unaware of this. It was built back in 1938 and opened in November 1939 as a showroom and offices for the local electricity company, which at the time was run by the council. Pre – war services such as gas, water and electricity supply were quite commonly managed and supplied by local councils; the idea of private companies being involved was something that did not happen until after the war had ended. Electricity House was also a place where new electrical customers could view domestic appliances which they could buy via hire purchase (it sounds like an early version of BrightHouse, but without the crippling interest rates). As well as the showroom,  Electricity House was home to what contemporary accounts say was a very upmarket dance hall with a fully sprung Canadian Maple floor; there was also a small Pathe cinema. The local electricity business was astonishingly successful – probably much helped by the fact that it offered the cheapest metered electricity in the entire UK at the time – one penny per unit. Ten thousand local people signed up for electrification in the first month alone, attracted by the offer of free connection to the local power grid – unusual at the time – many suppliers would even charge for the copper cable to connect new customers. In 1939 the Erith electricity board made a (for then) massive profit of £13,000. The idea was that the money would be used to improve local services and amenities for all, but the advent of war meant that early in 1940 Electricity House was handed over for war work, and once peace was restored, the money intended to benefit local people was absorbed by the LEB during nationalisation, and nothing was ever seen of it. Much of Erith was still lit by gas until relatively recently. I believe that some houses in West Street did not get electricity until 1947 when the London Electricity Board was formed, and the local council control of power was nationalised. I have heard a rumour (and I must stress that at this stage, it is only a rumour), that Electricity House may be coming up for sale in the not too distant future. The story goes that the current owners of Electricity House realise that the building is end of life, and no longer fit for purpose. The current commercial tenants don’t pay very much rent for the place, and as the building is old and very scruffy, it is unlikely to attract new tenants prepared to pay higher rents. The only real money earning part of the building is actually the roof, which hosts a number of cellular telephone repeaters and their associated antenna masts. The most profitable course of action would be for the owners of the site to sell the building to a property developer, and for the current building to be demolished to make way for a modern alternative which would attract new and more prosperous tenants prepared to pay higher rents. Personally I would rather see the existing building extensively refurbished, but I somehow doubt that would be commercially viable. The longest term tenant in the building is Erith Snooker Centre, which occupies a large portion of the upper floor, and has been there since at least 1946. Others like the various African stores, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Celestial Church of Christ (which seem to both share the former tyre warehouse part of the building that faces Erith Council Offices) would all have to find alternative accommodation if this redevelopment rumour has any foundation in truth.  If anyone has any information about the future of Electricity House, please drop me a private line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Back in 2011 a great FaceBook campaign was set up to prevent Belvedere Splash Park introducing entrance fees. The park, which is the largest computerised children’s wet play area in the UK is incredibly popular in the summer months, when it offers a fun and convenient (not to say cheap) day out for parents with young children. Bexley Council quickly backed down when they discovered the extent and depth of feeling against the introduction of charges, despite council policy seemingly being that anything that involves pleasure being banned or charged for to the point where use is positively discouraged – for example the permanent cancellation of the Danson Festival and the discontinuation of the “Bexley in Bloom” competition, even so the ending of the latter would save only a handful of pennies. I have now heard from multiple sources that the council are at it again; they are now closing the splash park for two days a week for “cleaning and maintenance”, yet on those days nobody is to be seen. Malcolm Knight of Bexley is Bonkers has already written on the subject, which you can read here. Malcolm has the advantage of publishing almost every day, whereas for logistical reasons the Maggot Sandwich only gets updated once per week on a Sunday. What all the concerned people who have contacted me on the subject note is that whilst Belvedere Splash Park is being closed two days a week, the equivalent splash park at Danson is not. The real reason for the Belvedere closure is to save on staff wages; why they are not doing the same at Danson is the usual one – all of the councillors and their families who make these decisions live in the South of the borough, and cutbacks in the North part of the borough don’t affect them – the posh parts of Bexley keep their amenities whilst the “plebs” in the poorer North take all of the cuts. Nothing new there then.

I have noticed that residents in certain parts of Erith, Northumberland Heath and Lower Belvedere are currently being targeted by the marketing departments of certain banks and credit card companies. It would seem that they have been trawling the electoral register and comparing it against a database of areas whose inhabitants are thought to be on a lower than average income. Locals are currently receiving a steady barrage of envelopes containing offers of loans and credit cards, typically with a wording along the lines of “CCJ’s need not be a problem – even if you have been turned down before – tenants and the unemployed welcome to apply – fixed weekly repayments” – the quotation was taken directly from a letter from Provident Personal Credit. Much has been written by both myself and many others about the online payday loan companies such as Wonga, and the high street crisis lenders such as The Money Shop, and their scandalous rates of interest. It would seem that the “respectable” financial institutions are now trying to get a slice of the market. The aforementioned Provident charge an eye watering 399.7 percent interest on their loans, whereas if you shop around (not difficult with online comparison websites) you can get a credit card with 18.9 percent interest and better repayment conditions. The difference is that in order to get a credit card with those kind of terms, one needs to be in full time, well paid employment and have a good credit history. The people the unscrupulous lenders are targeting are not this demographic – they are hoping to snare vulnerable “high risk” borrowers. Once again being poor can be seen to be very expensive. A better alternative would be to approach Greenwich and Bexley Credit Union. I have heard some strong rumours that a group of local churches are looking to set up a credit union for the people of Erith, Northumberland Heath and Belvedere. If this turns out to be the case, it will be a far better prospect than these unscrupulous high interest lenders that are actively seeking out people with a low income to charge outrageous sums in interest to.

If you were watching television on Monday night, you might have happened to come across the Channel 4 cookery show “Food Unwrapped” and the article about the resurgence in interest in eating jellied eels. If the fisherman and his little vessel looked familiar, it is with a reason. The chap featured was Dave Pearce, who fishes for eels off Erith. He and fellow Eel fisherman Gary Hillier are pretty much the only people who regularly fish for the eels nowadays. Back in 1981 there were around thirty eel fishermen, over half of whom made a living from fishing in the river Thames off Erith. The irony is that eels have become rarer, and their price has subsequently risen to the point that nowadays very few traditional pie and mash shops sell jellied or stewed eels, as they have become too expensive for their main customers, who often are retired people on a budget. “Food Unwrapped” gave the impression that eating eels was moving upmarket, and that smoking and barbecuing the fish was becoming increasingly popular.  Bearing in mind how eel fishing has formed part of the historical culture of Erith, it is remarkable just how little the humble eel is celebrated locally. Perhaps something roughly analogous to the Whitstable Oyster Festival could be set up in Erith? After all, the Oyster Festival has been tremendously successful and brings visitors and business to Whitstable, to the point where it is now the commercial and social highlight of the year. Perhaps something like it could be established for an Erith Eel Extravaganza could be set up? What do you think? About a decade ago, we had an Erith Multicultural Festival, which involved lots of food stalls along the high Street, and dragon boat races on the river, along with a big firework display in the evening. Perhaps an Erith Eel Extravaganza could be organised along similar lines. I concede that we might have a bit of an image problem; you think of oysters and you think of James Bond, whereas when you think of eels, you think of Alf Garnett. Eels have been a working class staple food since Roman times, and ironically until relatively recently, so were oysters, but overfishing of oysters caused them to become rare, and consequently they went up market – exactly the same thing is happening to the humble eel nowadays. Is the time right for an eel revival and a new image?  Should Erith be nailing eels to the mast (poor analogy, but you see where this is going).  Should we be celebrating the Erith eel, or is it just a sad footnote in history? What do you think? Do give me your feedback; you can comment below, or Email me to hugh.neal@gmail.com

The Basic computer programming language has just celebrated its fiftieth birthday. Whilst not the first computer language designed to be used by non – professional programmers (Cobol and Fortran could both claim that title) it was the language that gained massive popularity in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when it started to be taught in secondary schools and further education colleges, first on Commodore Pet and Research Machines 380Z computers, and slightly later on the massively popular and ubiquitous in education BBC Micro. Kids of the time, myself included also had early 8 – bit home computers, and learned to program them by a mixture of trial and error, and by laboriously copying game Basic source code by hand from magazines such as Computer and Video Games. One soon learned to save the input code on a very regular basis, as having the computer crash after spending three hours typing in code was a quick way to learn the benefits of a backup. Basic was relatively easy to learn, though different computers often employed slightly different versions, usually to accommodate special features that they had, which meant one could not expect a Basic program from say a Sinclair ZX Spectrum to work on a Commodore 64 without some fairly extensive rewrites to the code. One thing basic did allow you to do which cannot be done with modern programming languages is it enabled you to read and write data to areas of the computers’ memory which would normally not be permitted. The PEEK command enabled a programmer to see the value that was stored at a specific memory location, and the POKE command enabled you to write a value into a specified memory location. This might sound pretty dull and boring, but in reality it enabled you to get the computer to do all sorts of things that it was really not meant to. For example, there was a bug in the chip which controlled the video display in the very early versions of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The bug meant that the clock rate of the chip (how many instructions it could obey per second) could be radically altered by inputting a certain numerical value to a very specific address in the video memory. The increase in the clock rate caused the chip to suddenly heat up, to the point where it would begin to melt the rubber keys and thin plastic case of the Spectrum. Once this trick was discovered, there were numerous little oiks around the country who would go into Boots or Rumbelows (remember them?) and type in a short program to the Spectrums on display. The program had a FOR: NEXT loop in it, which acted as a timer to allow the perpetrator to make a stealthy exit. At the end of the loop, the POKE which over clocked the video chip would be executed. About ten minutes later, the shops’ fire alarm would sound as smoke poured out of the hapless Spectrum. Oh how we laughed. Not that I would condone this kind of behaviour of course (apologies to Boots in Bexleyheath Broadway Shopping Centre) – nowadays shops are covered by CCTV, and in any case this direct control of a computer via software is just not possible. Nowadays the operating system and firmware act as a barrier to such tricks.

I have heard that recently launched London Live – the TV service set up and run by the London Evening Standard is already in deep trouble. The channel, which broadcasts a series of London – centric programmes, along with a lot of re – runs from other channels is already looking to cut back broadcasting hours. At present the station broadcasts around the clock, but I have heard that they would like to cut back to opening at 7am and going off air at around midnight. Initial viewing statistics for the station have been woeful. The station, which launched back at the end of March is only attracting between two and four thousand viewers for its flagship early evening news and current affairs programme. The highest viewing figure for any one day were approximately fifteen thousand people – in a capital of nine million, this figure is statistically as close to zero as makes very little difference. I am really not surprised that London Live has had these problems. The production values and technical quality of their original programming is amateurish to say the least; it is painfully apparent that the broadcasts are made with minimal resources and little in the way of money. One critic wrote” The schedule is appalling; the picture quality at times is worse than a worn-out VHS tape and at other times, it is like watching a 240p YouTube video on a 60" plasma screen. The whole thing is a dog's dinner, so why would anyone want to watch it in the first place? Never mind the advertisers!” Quite. Bearing in mind that the station is heavily promoted in the London Evening Standard every weekday, to the extent that London Live features before BBC1 on their television scheduling page, and London Live based programmes invariably get featured on the “pick of the day” page. Even with the overt and heavy promotion that the paper, which has a circulation in excess of nine hundred thousand readers, they cannot get more viewers to the station. What do you think? Have you watched the station? You can leave a comment below, or Email me directly to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Please click on the questionnaire above to be able to read a larger version. It is a sneak preview of a document that will be handed out to visitors to Erith Fun Day on Saturday the 30th August. I have mentioned in passing over the last few months that I have had some involvement in the work to restore and convert the Cross Keys in Erith High Street into a venue available for all local people to use. I have been a member of the local residents steering committee since it was formed, and over the next couple of weeks I will be outlining the way in which the Aleff Group who own and are restoring the building are very keen to engage with the local residents to create a facility which will act as a community centre, restaurant, tea shop and local small business resource with bookable hot desks, private meeting rooms, 100 seat presentation suite / cinema, WiFi internet access and printing facilities. The project has the full backing of local MP Teresa Pearce, the local Police, Erith Town Forum, the Rotary Club, Bexley Business Forum, and a host of other worthwhile local organisations.

The battle for the radio airwaves over London grinds on. The competition between Capital Radio and Magic has been a close run thing for several years, with Capital finally beating Magic in the most recent polls. This is interesting stuff, as when Magic first started in 1990 it was called Melody FM and had a very old school , unchallenging easy listening music format –  Mantovani style big bands, crooners and hardly any music from later than the mid 1970’s. This, along with the station policy of very little speech from the presenter and no station identification jingles quickly got it the nickname of “Mogadon FM” as the laid back format allegedly sent the listeners to sleep! Advertisers were initially pleased with this approach, but soon realised that the demographic of the station was overwhelmingly amongst pensioners, many of which had little in the way of disposable income; the advertising revenue then began to dry up. This, along with the sudden deaths of two presenters persuaded the owners to change the format slightly to allow more interaction from the presenters and slightly modernise the playlist to allow artists such as Enya to be played. By 1998 the station was sold and rebranded as Magic 105.4 and further marketed to attract a younger audience. The rebranding worked very well, and Capital Radio got its first real direct competitor for the music listening Londoner.

Resurfacing work in Manor Road has been completed two weeks ahead of the planned schedule. I am gratified by this; after my blog posting criticizing the contractor Conway as to the level of resources they were employing on the site, the number of workers and the length of time they were working on Manor Road dramatically increased. There is every chance that this was a happy coincidence, but you can draw your own conclusions. A very useful new confidential contact dropped me a line during the week to let me know that as Conway had finished resurfacing Manor Road early, they were in a position to carry out maintenance on the roundabout opposite the KFC drive through, and a few other small jobs in the area. I think that this makes eminent sense – after all, the workers and equipment are already on site, it will just require some more hot tarmac and a splash or two of road paint. I have also been in contact with the council about the illegal traffic cut through at the end of Appold Street where it joins James Watt Way. There are bollards to (supposedly) prevent vehicles other than push bikes from using this route as a cut - through, but historically the bollards were placed too far apart, and small cars and vans could get through. During the Manor Road surfacing work, there was a constant stream of vehicles illegally cutting through. The matter was raised the with the Police, but by the time this was done, Conway had removed several bollards and were actively encouraging vehicles to used the illegal diversion. Understandably the residents of Appold Street were very upset by the huge increase in vehicles using the road - most have houses with no front gardens, and their front doors open directly onto the pavement. The noise, smell and disruption was very bad, and during rush hour there were often queues of cars waiting to share the one – way only cut through. Impatient drivers hooted their vehicle horns and a number of road rage incidents and two minor accidents involving children in baby buggies being clipped by passing vehicles were reported. Fortunately no serious injuries resulted from the situation. Following a midweek Email I sent to a chap called Dimitri Araj of Bexley Council Engineering Services team, I got the following response on Friday afternoon:- "Thank you for your constructive comments about our works in Manor Road. You will be glad to know that because of the savings we have made in the works, we shall be resurfacing Appold Street on 22 August 2014 after clearing the temporary site holding compound from the bottom of the road at the junction of James Watt Way. We shall replace all the broken kerb stones from the island in the road and renew the road markings as well. We shall write to the local residents about this work next week. Also as suggested by you and other local residents, we will increase the number of steel bollards at the junction of James Watt Way to reduce the gaps between them. We shall endeavour to complete this by the 22 August 2014 or as soon as possible after that if there is problem with the supply of these steel bollards. I am hoping that these additional measures will work. The closure of the KFC roundabout is limited to 10 hours this Sunday afternoon / night and 4 hours on Monday night and we are hoping that the traffic will be very light then. The site holding compound is blocking Appold Street and there will be debris and construction materials to discourage any passage through there while the diversion is in place. My colleagues in Street Works Team have regular contacts with the police and they have asked the police to increase their presence in the area during our works. I have personally reported two incidents to the police recently. Finally I would like to thank you and all the local residents for your patients with us during the Manor Road works which have improved the local environment in my view". What a result!

The ending video this week is a few months old, so it may not be completely up to date. It shows some of the demolition and rebuilding work going on in the Southmere part of Thamesmead, prior to the Crossrail project opening in Abbey Wood, which will bring a lot of new people to the area, and also is certain to put local property prices up.