Erith Fun Day 2016.

Erith Fun Day 2016 at the new venue of the field behind Erith Sports Centre. The new venue meant that many more stalls and exhibitors could take place than in previous years. The new venue lacked the atmosphere of the Riverside Gardens, and was difficult to navigate with a child's buggy or wheelchair, but this was far outweighed by the positive benefits. Unlike the Riverside Gardens, which is located on a main road, the sports field is completely self contained, so small children were able to run around safely at will. I also noticed that visitors seemed to stay appreciably longer at the new venue - probably a combination of more to see and do, along with the fact the stalls were not set out in a line like they were in the Riverside Gardens, which used to mean that visitors would walk the length of the road, then go straight home; now they were far more likely to walk around in a circle and spend more time than before. 

Various bands and acts played on the main stage over the course of the afternoon. A couple of people suggested that a dedicated live music tent might be a positive suggestion for future Fun Days. The increased size of the event could certainly justify this. A strong wind blew for much of the day, and although the level of amplification used was by no means excessive, I heard a report that the sound of the fun day activities could be heard in Slade Green. 

Piper Chic Mackie and the Black Watch Pipe Band; in the photo above Chic is checking the output of a set of bagpipes with some kind of measuring device. Rumour has it that when not playing music, the bagpipes can take still out a T72 main battle tank at over a hundred metres....

It was quite windy on the open sports field, and many stallholders had problems with their gazebos wanting to take off.  The event was very well attended, and much larger than in previous years. A new addition to the event was a beer trailer, which attracted a long queue of thirsty visitors; from what I could see, it only seemed to served lager, so it was of no interest to me personally. 

The local Police and Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association were well represented at the Fun Day - you can see Claire Tack (in black, to the left of the picture) trying to get out of my shot. She did not succeed!

The photo above shows the Current Mayor of Bexley, Councillor Eileen Pallen, with her husband (and Mayor's official escort) Mark, alongside Councillor Ed Boateng, who represents Erith Ward. All in all, the Erith Fun Day was a great success - many more exhibitors and visitors than ever before, and the weather was OK - no rain, though it remained overcast for much of the day. I think that thanks must go out to the organisers for what must have been a huge amount of work. Now I look forward to next year's event!

One thing seems clear to me since the News Shopper closed its Petts Wood Office and made its reporters spend much of their time working from home; through no fault of their own, the accuracy of their stories has suffered to a greater or lesser extent. They have also reduced their use of their staff photographer – a pleasant chap I have bumped into at many events over the last few years. The News Shopper seems now to rely on (usually poor quality) photos taken by eye witnesses using camera phones, and to employing stock images. They also seem to have increased their usage of screen captures from Google Street View. I understand that this is all a means to reduce overheads – running a local paper nowadays is a really hard thing to do, with advertising rates static or decreasing, and the widespread use of browser ad blockers by visitors to their website. I can appreciate all of these decisions the newspaper has had to make in order to be competitive, and indeed to survive. What I cannot understand is the dislocation of reporters from the local area when it affects the quality and accuracy of reporting. There have been several instances recently where stories have had serious errors that have not been picked up and corrected by the editor. Currently the News Shopper is carrying a story about the Bexley Business Academy; it says:- "An Erith school has been de-rated to “inadequate” by Ofsted after a damning report shows improvements are needed across all areas. The inspectorate has given The Business Academy Bexley (BAC) in Yarnton Way a withering set of scores including substandard levels of management and leadership and a shoddy quality of teaching and assessment. Ofsted also reported that outcomes for pupils in the secondary school are inadequate with progress is too slow across the curriculum - including in English and mathematics. White British pupils, and boys in particular, are making poor progress, the report adds. Teachers do not have high enough expectations of what pupils can achieve at the school and as a significant number of teachers are temporary, this is also inhibiting pupils’ progress, Ofsted inspectors believe. Management policies and practices are also weak meaning self-evaluation is inaccurate and therefore the school’s weaknesses are not comprehended. For example, in the secondary school, poor teaching has led to unacceptable behaviour from pupils, too much of which has gone unchallenged by teachers. Financial constraints have also led to reductions in provision, including for pupils who have special educational needs or disability”. The story is all very well – it is disturbing to hear that a key local school is underperforming, and it will be interesting to see what measures are put into place to restore the school’s performance. What does irritate me is a fundamental inaccuracy in the reported story. Yarnton Way connects Lower Belvedere and Abbey Wood, it is NOT located in Erith. Bexley Academy is located in Abbey Wood. The News Shopper has been making some fundamental errors of this nature recently, and it undermines their reporting authority and credibility. I note that even the negative Ofsted report claims that the school is in “Yarnton Way, Erith”, which is hardly cause for optimism. You can read the full Ofsted report by clicking here (download a PDF file).

Following my article last week about the break in and burglary at the Cross Keys Centre, and my invitation for suggestions as to how the £3.9 million regeneration fund for the local area could be spent, I got the following message from a regular reader who chooses to remain anonymous:-"You asked for regeneration suggestions. Not exactly Erith Town Centre, but it seems a shame the Council didn't have the money (or enthusiasm) to keep the Splash Park open. And surely they could regenerate the lovely Carnegie building before something awful happens to that.  I know you hope it will become a civilised pub, and I'm happy with that, but it would be good if Bexley still kept ownership and granted them a long lease. Or what about investing money in a regenerated lifeboat station by the riverside, as you have recommended previously? And what about the road improvement proposals they had, whereby the corner end of Christ Church's grounds would be sold to the Council to make Bexley Road a bit wider?   Is that still on the cards?   It all went very quiet. I don't suppose the Council own the unsightly block with the kebab shop near the fish roundabout and where the Erith Snooker Club was/is?  If they did, then that could be redeveloped and smartened up, with some proper shops.  But then there are still empty units in the town centre.  Perhaps the Council could invest some money there to somehow make it easier for businesses to survive??   I really don't know. Or put some stocks in the town centre to put those young toe-rags in who vandalise and steal. Talking of which, the youths whose photos you have published clearly touched the stair railings and other places - I assume they are not "known" by the police and have their fingerprints on record? "

Back in January I wrote the following:- "Word reaches me that production of the new revised BBC version of “Top Gear” is not going very smoothly. I understand that the pilot episode for the new format of the show has been screened to a test audience, who apparently hated it. BBC bosses have demanded extensive changes and re – shoots. Personally I am not bothered, as I won’t be watching the new BBC Top Gear when it airs in May. I am sure that many people like Chris Evans, but personally I cannot stand the man – my reflex action whenever I encounter him on TV or the radio is to either change the channel or switch off. I, like many “proper” Top Gear fans, am waiting for the announcement of the air date for the new car show starring Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, and produced by “proper” Top Gear boss Andy Wilman which will be shown on Amazon Prime. I am happy to take out an annual Amazon Prime subscription just to watch the new show. Apparently even some of the crew working on the BBC revamp of “Top Gear” refer to the show using the acronym “TGINO” which stands for “Top Gear In Name Only”. I think this says more than enough about the confidence in the programme. Time will tell, but I would not place to many bets on the success of the show under the stewardship of Chris Evans." Oh how prophetic I was!

I received an Email earlier this week from one of my local contacts; she wanted to let me know about some positive developments that are about to take place in the Arthur Street Estate. The estate, which is located on the opposite side of Northend Road to the Erith Park Development (which, incidentally has recently won London Regeneration Project of the year at the London Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Awards (RICS) and has been shortlisted for a National Housing Award for Best Regeneration Project). The Arthur Street Estate consists of three high rise blocks of flats – Cranbrook House, Cobham House and Canterbury House, and some low level accommodation – Challock House, Charing House, and The Nursery. Orbit Housing Association have managed the estate since February 1998. Historically the Arthur Street Estate has been regarded by many as somewhat of a problem, this is principally because historically there has been a large proportion of prolific offenders, people with a criminal background, and people with high support needs - particularly with drug and alcohol dependency living on the estate. Figures from a police report for the 12 months to 30 September 2011 showed 56 suspects of crime in Bexley living within the postcodes for Arthur Street Estate. Of the 56 crimes, only 1 was a motoring offence and 3 public order offences, the remaining 52 more high level crimes. The effect on community sustainability has been huge, with law abiding residents seeing this as short term housing, a means to an end. They have often been subjected to incidents of Anti  - Social Behaviour. This led to those residents requesting transfers, moving out from the properties and increasing turnover of residents. Orbit have been working with Bexley Council and various authorities to address these issues, and much good work has now been done, in a similar way to how Orbit were able to filter out the real trouble makers from the old Larner Road Estate, and not permit them into the new Erith Park Development, and since the start of the programme the situation has markedly improved. Now Orbit are about to start a new project in relation to the estate. They are consulting with the residents of the Arthur Street Estate regarding what they would like to see happening to it.  The invitation reads: “The Arthur Street estate is now almost 40 years old. Your local Orbit team has worked hard to keep this an attractive place to live but we don’t think that’s enough. We need to make some important decisions about the future of the estate to make sure we provide homes where people want to live, now and in the future. We want to hear your views. Should Arthur Street and Boundary Street: • Be redeveloped (similar to Larner Road/Erith Park)? • Left as it is? • Do you have other ideas? Drop in to our exhibition at Peareswood School on Saturday 16 July between 11am - 3pm and give us your views. If you miss the exhibition, our consultation will continue on Facebook Arthur Street Future after 16 July”. This sounds like an excellent opportunity for residents to actually have a proper say about what happens to their residential environment. My own view (as a non – resident) is that the main tower blocks are old, fuel inefficient and end of life, and should be demolished and replaced with modern, energy efficient apartments with better buggy and wheelchair access – as has proved so popular from the new flats on the Erith Park Estate. As for the lower – level accommodation, I feel that some could be extensively refurbished, but many of the buildings will have concrete frames, which are always problematic, especially as they age. To be honest, most of the housing stock on the Arthur Street Estate is old and looking understandably rather worn and past its best. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Following the despicable forced closure of Belvedere Splash Park by Bexley Council, the park has been closed and silent for the most part, with access to the site limited by metal barriers. The public toilets on the site have been unaffected by the closure of the Splash Park – they are some of the only public loos still open in the whole London Borough of Bexley. One of my sources tells me that there was a disturbance last Monday, when at around midday he drove past the toilets, where two fire engines were in attendance. Bearing in mind the toilet block is constructed of brick, and the interior is composed mainly of stone and porcelain tiling, it makes me wonder as to exactly what could have been burning? Apparently drinkers in The Eardley Arms (the Mos Eisley Cantina of Upper Belvedere), across the road were looking on with interest. I know Bexley Council are strapped for cash, but surely an insurance job on a public bog would be out of the question? If anyone can cast light on the origins of the khazi conflagration, please let me know.

Long – term Maggot Sandwich readers may recall that in the past I have mentioned FrightFest – the UK's premiere fantasy and horror film festival. One of the main sponsors and organisers of the annual festival are Darenth based video and TV production company Splice Media. FrightFest will be taking place over the long weekend of the 25th to the 29th of August at the VUE West cinema complex in Shepherd's Bush. You can see a list of all of the films that will be shown at the festival by clicking here. Tickets for the event can be obtained by clicking here. 

Bexley Council reported earlier last week that it was joining with Lewisham and Greenwich to make use of Connect Care, a new data sharing initiative designed to speed up health services. The programme was supposed to combine data from hospitals, community health bodies and GPs’ patient records together with local authorities’ care systems to form one record for each person. For example, if someone receiving home care was to go visit Queen Elizabeth Hospital emergency department, the nursing staff will be able to access details of your medications and the social care plan in place for you. Then, their social worker and GP would be able to see that you attended Accident and Emergency  and take appropriate action. This all sounds like excellent, forward - thinking stuff, if it was not for one fact. The NHS currently has the worst reputation for data security of any organisation in the UK. Whistle blowers alerted the UK's data watchdog to twenty NHS trusts, thirteen local government authorities, five courts and five central government departments with reports of serious data breaches in 2014 (the most recent year for which records are currently available). An extra 498 data breaches were self-reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) by the NHS departments. Further, 148 local government departments also admitted to losing personal information, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The breaches ranged from losing hardware like a USB key or printed copies of patient information for example, to uploading sensitive information to websites, to technical failures and hacking. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Cafcass, the children and family’s court service, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Crown Prosecution Services were named and shamed. The NHS’ title as ‘most investigated’ for potentially serious data breaches by the ICO could be the nail in the coffin for health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s highly controversial care data program. The scheme to feed patient records into a UK-wide data program was proposed to allow online access from any health service and to serve as an extra revenue stream for the NHS by selling "anonymised" information on to third parties. Of the breaches that were self-reported, four breaches were served undertakings, highlighting their seriousness. They were in the retail, health, local government and estate agent sector. Now perhaps you can understand why I was about to formally request that my data not be stored in this new system - as I have no faith whatsoever on the information being kept safe and private. You can download an opt - out form from here - good old fashioned NHS technology - you have to print out the form and post it to them. Not quite like writing on the back of a sealed envelope, but almost. Only days after the announcement by Bexley Council, the Department of Health announced a complete reversal of policy; The controversial  patient information-sharing scheme has been binned. The closure of the scheme was announced in a statement by minister for life sciences George Freeman MP. It follows a review by the National Data Guardian Fiona Caldicott which recommended better safeguards for the sharing of patient data. Freeman said: "In light of Dame Fiona’s recommendations, NHS England has taken the decision to close the care data programme. However, the government and the health and care system remain absolutely committed to realising the benefits of sharing information, as an essential part of improving outcomes for patients. "Therefore this work will now be taken forward by the National Information Board, in close collaboration with the primary care community, in order to retain public confidence and to drive better care for patients." The Care data programme has faced ongoing controversy and delays since it was first announced three years ago. The main concern around the programme has been the sharing of sensitive medical information with commercial entities without explicit consent. So far one million people have opted out of the scheme. However, the report by Caldicott  recommended that patients must be allowed to opt out of their personal data being used for purposes beyond their direct care. It said not enough had been done to gain patients' confidence in the scheme. Earlier this year, a leaked document revealed that the Royal Free NHS trust had controversially signed a deal with Google's DeepMind to give the outfit access to 1.6 million patient records. Responding to the announcement, Phil Booth, coordinator of medConfidential, warned that while the "toxic brand" may have ended, the government policy "continues to be the widest sharing of every patient's most private data". He said: "The care data programme did exist, and has a toxic legacy leaking across the NHS".

The rather pleasant photo above of Erith Riverside Gardens was taken back in the summer of 1966 - exactly fifty years ago. It shows how both the gardens and the river have changed in the intervening half century. 

The second photo from the summer of 1966 shows Erith High Street. The only building that is still present nowadays is Erith Post Office, to the extreme right of the photo. All other buildings have sadly been demolished. Thanks to the ReV for sending me the historic shots. 

If some readers think my concerns with cyber security are a little on the paranoid side, then perhaps you should consider the following story; security researchers at Binghampton University in New York State have been investigating the use of smart watches, and have discovered that a person wearing a smart watch is vulnerable to malicious snooping which can reveal details of their cash dispenser PIN number and other private information. By combining smart watch movement sensor data with an algorithm to infer key entry sequences from even the smallest of hand movements, the team was able to crack private ATM PINs with 80 percent accuracy on the first try and more than 90 percent accuracy after three tries. Mobile systems and cyber security expert Yan Wang said in an interview on the IEEE.org website “I have to admit, at the beginning, I thought this would be science fiction, but it can actually be done. There are just so many sensors on these wearable devices. It provides sufficient information of your hand movements.” There has long been concern over the security of smart watches, fitness trackers, and other internet-connected wearables that gather sensitive information, such as what time of day a user leaves their home. To infer user inputs on keyboards, past cyber security studies have used cameras to observe how a hand moves over a keypad or machine-based learning techniques to train a program to detect user movements.  Now, spying on a PIN just got much easier, thanks to sensors that measure acceleration, orientation and direction in wrist mounted devices. The researchers conducted 5,000 key-entry tests on three different keypads—a detachable ATM pad, a keypad on ATM machine, and a QWERTY keyboard. Twenty adults performed the tests wearing one of three different devices: the LG W150 or Moto360 smart watches or the Invensense MPU-9150, a nine-axis motion tracking device. The security team downloaded sensor data from the tests, which recorded hand movements down to the millimetre. Using an algorithm they called the “Backward PIN-sequence Inference Algorithm,” the team was able to break the codes with alarming accuracy. The most challenging part of the process was eliminating errors that emerge when trying to calculate distance moved based on acceleration, says Wang. The team found the best way to minimize those errors was to work backwards: Most people end a PIN entry by pressing ‘Enter’, so the team started with the Enter key, then traced backwards to each preceding key—a hacker’s version of join-the-dots. The method does not require an attacker to be anywhere near an ATM or other key-entry pad (such as an electronic door lock or computer keyboard). Instead, data can be stolen by either a wireless sniffer placed close to a keypad to capture Bluetooth packets sent by the wearable to a smartphone, or by installing malware on the wearable or smartphone to eavesdrop on the data and send it to the attacker’s server. All very worrying stuff.

And now let me publish an appeal to all the readers of the Maggot Sandwich. The weekend of the 23rd / 24th July will mark the tenth anniversary of the start of Arthur Pewty’s Maggot Sandwich. The blog has not missed a Sunday publication since then. I would be interest in getting feedback from you on the blog – how you discovered it, what you like / dislike, and any anecdotes related to the Maggot Sandwich that you might have. The specifics are open to you. If you would like to write a short piece for publication on the 10th birthday edition, please Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com at least three days before Sunday the 24th July with any submission. Your submission can be anonymous should you so wish.

The ending video is a short documentary on the origins of London - how the great city came to be. 

Out of Wind.

The Erith Wind Turbine has rapidly become one of the major landmarks of the town, even though it is actually located far closer to Slade Green, than to central Erith. The Wind Turbine is situated on the banks of the River Thames on the Manford Industrial Estate, which is also home to the excellent, multi award - winning Bexley Brewery. The location of the wind turbine was somewhat controversial when it was first installed back in October 2012, with some Slade Green residents objecting to it. Since then it has formed an integral part of the local landscape. It was fairly widely anticipated that further wind turbines would be constructed locally, as the Government sought to create as much energy using renewable energy sources as possible. A recent report may well have put paid to this, however. It would seem that the UK has the wrong type of wind. The head of the wind industry’s trade body in the UK has admitted England isn’t windy enough for any more wind farms. “We are almost certainly not talking about the possibility of new plants in England. The project economics wouldn’t work; the wind speeds don’t allow for it,” essentially the wind in the UK is too sporadic and unreliable to make for an efficient renewable energy source. Hugh McNeal (no relation - I promise!) head of Renewable UK told the Daily Telegraph. McNeal joined the lobby group from the civil service, where he was “Director of Change” (a real job title) at the Department of Energy and Climate Change during its most wind-friendly phase. Government subsidies for new onshore wind turbines were quietly dropped on the 1st April this year; In his final interview before his untimely death from cancer, DECC’s chief scientific advisor Sir David Mackay called it an “appalling delusion” that the UK could meet its energy needs from renewables. Wind turbines were simply a "waste of money" in winter, for "when the wind blows you are going to have to either turn those wind turbines down or something else down that you have already paid for, like the nuclear or coal fired generators". Solar generation only works in really sunny countries. The international renewables agency IRENA recently admitted that renewable usage is actually falling in China, India and Mexico. The EU quietly dropped its mandate that 10 per cent of transport be powered by renewables 2020 earlier this year. Bill Gates has called for the huge renewables subsidies wasted on wind and solar to be diverted to more potentially useful low carbon innovation. I think that the Erith wind turbine probably pays its' way, as the wind off the River Thames is a lot more reliable than that in other areas, but that is the exception, rather than the rule. It is a pity that the so - called renewable energy from wind and the sun is not actually reliable enough to make a significant contribution to the UK energy reserve, but I suppose that we have to be realistic, rather than idealistic.

As I have previously written, I have concerns over the quality of local journalism, now that the staff of the News Shopper have moved out of their long - term home in Petts Wood and are now either working from home, or from their new base in West London, far from the area they are tasked with covering. A prime example of this happened this week. A reporter named James Parsons wrote a piece about a woman who is resident at the former Homeleigh Care Home in Avenue Road, Erith, which has been converted into a temporary respite shelter for homeless people. The problem with the piece was (and at the time of writing, currently is) that the reporter refers to the former care home being located in Sidcup rather than Erith. I Emailed James Parsons to point out his error, and got an out of office auto reply, and since then several readers have left comments on the article pointing out the error in the story, but thus far it has not been corrected; the story was originally posted on Wednesday, and it is now Sunday. Very poor journalism. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Long - term Maggot Sandwich readers will be aware of my strong antipathy towards gambling, and especially towards Fixed Odds Betting Terminals used in bookmakers shops. There is now a clinic in Fulham which specialises in supporting and helping people with gambling problems to overcome their addiction: The National Problem Gambling Clinic - around fifteen problem gamblers are referred to the clinic every week from across the country; every year between 750 and 900 people start treatment here. Most are male, and in their 30s and 40s; about 70 percent are working. “Yet, by the time we see them, they have lost jobs or lost opportunities professionally because of their gambling and they have often compromised important relationships,” Bowden-Jones says. “They are usually highly stressed and there is a lot of guilt, when they look at the negative consequences on their employers, spouse, children, employers.” Most patients are spending their money on the high street roulette machines – known as fixed odds betting terminals (often described as the crack cocaine of gambling, because of the speed with which large sums can be staked, and lost), and on sports betting, usually done online at home. The easy availability of online, in-game betting has made sports betting increasingly popular over the past decade. While fifteen years ago people might only have been able to bet on the result of a game, at the bookmakers, now they can bet online, on a variety of scenarios within the game, making watching the sport highly stressful for gamblers. Bowden-Jones, who previously specialised in alcohol and drug addiction, founded the NHS’s first and only specialist gambling clinic, funded by the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, in 2008. It had become obvious, amid rising concern about the growing presence of super-casinos and new easy access to betting shops, that there was a desperate need for it. She has been innovative and experimental, trialling the use of a cravings-suppressing drug, naltrexone, more commonly prescribed to alcoholics and heroin addicts. It is a last-resort treatment for gamblers whose addiction has persisted despite the clinic’s interventions. Personally I would have thought drastic cutbacks and legal restrictions on betting shops and online gambling, and especially on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals would be the best way forward. What do you think?

One of my anonymous sources has alerted me to the news that a licence application has been made to Bexley Council for a new Micro Pub to be called the Hackney Carriage, which (if permission is granted, and I have little doubt that it will), would be located at 165 Station Road, Sidcup. This is good news; Bexley is becoming a leader in encouraging and supporting Micro Pubs. I would like to see one in Erith or Northumberland Heath - there are plenty of suitable unused shop units available, and the demand is certainly there. Central Erith only has one pub - The Running Horses (see the photo above - click on it for a larger view), which is sadly a bare shadow of what it used to be. I would love to see it as a lively and busy family friendly place with an excellent upstairs restaurant, but instead it limps along with a small band of loyal regulars. A large investment really needs to be made in the place - perhaps if a large pub company or brewer such as Shepherd Neame or Fuller's were to buy it, they would be able to turn the place around once and for all. I fear that when things get particularly tight for the current owners, they may be tempted to sell of the building and plot of land on which it sits to a property developer to demolish the pub and replace it with yet more riverside apartments, and I know I am far from being alone in this concern. The Running Horses is an excellent building, and with some love and cash it could bring it back to its' glory days in the late 1980's when you needed to book a week in advance to get a table in the upstairs carvery on a Sunday lunchtime. Another beer related story was brought to my attention earlier in the week, and it has parallels with an experience of my own. A Belgian brewery has developed an impressive engineering solution to a problem they had with transporting their beers. Bruges brewery De Halve Maan (The Half Moon) is about to open the valves on a €4m beer pipeline designed to carry vital supplies the 3.2km from its city centre production facility to its bottling plant. The subterranean ale conduit was the brainchild of De Halve Maan's head brewer Xavier Vanneste, who wanted a solution to the problem of beer tanker lorries negotiating the city's narrow streets around the brewery in Walplein square. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Vanneste was inspired by workers "laying underground utility cables in front of his house". He admitted: "It all started as a joke. Nobody believed it was going to work." Four years later, though, and the epic project is just weeks away from completion. Vanneste raised an impressive €300,000 of the pipeline budget with a crowdfunding initiative, which offered investors with €7,500 to spare "one 33cl bottle of Brugse Zot Blond every day for the rest of your life". Less wealthy customers were tempted with one case of 24 bottles of Brugse Zot Blond a year for life (€800), or "one presentation bottle of 75cl of Brugse Zot Blond a year for life" for a modest €220. Restaurateur Philippe Le Loup was one of those who stumped up €7,500, and he reckons that at a bottle a day he'll have recouped his investment in 15 years. Le Loup's restaurant is a few hundred metres from the pipeline, and he said he'd have welcomed a direct connection, to save him "a lot of keg-dragging". Sadly for him, and indeed those Belgian citizens who are no doubt already planning just how to tap the polyethylene pipe, Vanneste said this would prove "impossible", rating the tube as "stronger than steel". The Belgian pipe development is the longest and by far the most ambitious beer pipeline in the world, but it is far from the only one. Shepherd Neame down at their historic brewery in Faversham have what they call "The Beer Bridge" - their main brewery is on one side of a busy road, and their bottling plant is on the other. The have constructed an overhead gantry which contains beer piped from the brewery to the bottling plant. Apparently there have been several attempts to drill into the pipes and siphon off the beer, though to date none appear to have been successful. The Belgian enterprise is far more ambitious - you can see a short video on the brewery behind it below. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The whole of the South East of England is under intense population pressure for a multitude of reasons I’m not about to explore here. Others with higher levels of insight have already done so far more eloquently than I. Nevertheless the population boom and lack of investment in new housing stock have caused property prices to boom, and the rental market to explode. Those with lots of money (many of whom are absentee foreign investors seeking to get their cash into the UK economy, which they judge to be a stable and reliable place to invest) have been doing very nicely indeed out of the situation, whilst the rest of us struggle. This week the News Shopper has highlighted a particular problem with the London Borough of Bexley. Unusually for a local council, Bexley does not have a Tenancy Relations Officer to supervise the private landlord market in the Borough. This has partly led to the current situation where some unscrupulous private landlords are dividing up houses into tiny flats, often contrary to the building and health and safety regulations. The News shopper has recently reported that a petition has been started which is designed to persuade Bexley Council to introduce legislation to force developers to apply for planning permission before converting two-bed family homes into six separate bedsits, known as an Article 4 direction. Bexley would appear to have a particular problem with what is known as Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO). Many of these HMO houses are used as hostels for vulnerable people with drug and / or mental health problems, or ex – offenders, and many home owners feel intimidated by the HMO residents. Because Bexley Council have historically not engaged with HMO landlords, they lack any data on how many, and in what areas HMO houses are located. The petition that has been set up on the Change.org website can be seen here. Reading the comments from the local residents that have signed the petition, it would seem that feeling is running very high indeed on the matter. One fairly typical comment is from a lady called Donna Everist who writes:- “I think it's wrong that law abiding, hardworking people, who pay a mortgage, taxes, council taxes etc could have the house next door turned into bedsits filled with people who have done none of these, and probably never will. If the comments about the sort of people who will reside in these bedsits is true, then I'm lost for words!” Other comments are somewhat less measured, with often recurring references to “paedos, druggies, nutters and scum”. It will be instructive to see what happens when the petition is handed to Teresa Pearce MP and David Evennett MP – our two local politicians. I get the feeling this story will run for a long time to come.

The HMO story highlights the somewhat contradictory situation with property in The London Borough of Bexley; not only is the creation of multi occupancy residences unmonitored and apparently unregulated, but on top of this, towns in the borough also top the polls regarding both property affordability and speed of selling. A recent report by estate agent Rightmove stated that homes in Bexleyheath  — where average prices stand at £375,259 — sell in just three weeks, thanks a potent local mix of affordable property, grammar schools, and a 35-minute commute to central London. Abbey Wood is a close second, benefiting from the imminent arrival of the Elizabeth line (formerly Crossrail). Property there sells in an average of 22 days, and an average house costs £326,815. Dartford’s market is equally active, with homes that also take 22 days to sell, at an average price of £290,523. The most expensive town in the London Borough of Bexley, with an average price of £471,931, is Bexley village, while the cheapest is Erith, with an average price of £261,433. They are also the areas of London where prices are predicted to start rising fastest. My own property, Pewty Acres has risen in value so much that I would be unable to purchase it nowadays. A report released by property experts CBRE Residential back in January backed this finding up; it compared the average wage and average house price for each London borough, giving first-time buyers a good idea of how far their annual income will stretch. “While affordability for many first-time buyers in London may be stretched, there are still a number of locations that are continuing to attract these buyers with lower values and potential for growth," says Jennet Siebrits, head of residential research at CBRE. "By measuring the average earnings coupled with local house prices, we anticipate that Bexley is set to further appeal to those looking for increased value for money." The report was featured in the London Evening Standard at the time, though through lazy journalism and lack of proper research, the paper described Bexley as being in “East London” – something guaranteed to raise the hackles of many local people. Bexleyheath was the featured town in the weekly Homes and Property section of the London Evening Standard last Wednesday afternoon - click here to see their coverage.

I have been in communication with the team behind Erith Fun Day, which for the first time will be held in Erith Sports Centre, instead of the tradition venue in Erith Riverside Gardens, overlooking the River Thames. Several readers have been displeased regarding the change of venue, which some feel is less accessible. The Fun Day management team responded with this very open and honest reply:- “Firstly, I should say that this was a big decision for us which we really did discuss at length as we are so aware of making use of the gardens. Nobody wants developers to get their hands on this land and so our plan is to hopefully put on another event later this year.  At Rotary we have discussed a couple of ideas including a beer festival and an open air  movie night. Anyway, onto our reasons for making the move. The first thing is probably to make you aware of our funding issues. We are all volunteers and do not receive any funding apart from what we raise. The Erith Group are fabulous and give us £500 each year which is our starting point.  This just covers the cost of gardens/park hire and our licences. On top of this we have to provide toilet facilities, generator hire ,publicity and printing costs, first aid cover  and a myriad of smaller things. Dan our Dj and MC gives his time and equipment for free and counts towards our sponsors. The mobile bar company gives us a small percentage of takings as does Forrest Fairs.  The last two are paid after the event and we do not know how much we will get but this  then goes into the kitty for next year.! Based on the feedback we received from last year, the biggest issue was that there was not enough to do and the queues for children's activities were too long.  This was exasperated by the fact that in order to raise funds we needed more volunteers to operate things like the bouncy castle.  So we had to decide how we could put on more activities etc.  This of course meant raising more money from stallholders etc. We could not add more to the Riverside gardens as there were too many safety issues getting vehicles on and off site and also access is severely restricted.  We have raised this issue with the council but it is unlikely the bollards will be re-positioned. The only way we could find was to move to a larger venue, ie the Rec. This has enabled Forrest Fairs to provide a couple more children's rides and for us to offer a lot more stalls for sale allowing us to raise more funds. We try to keep our stall charges at the lowest possible level to encourage small business to join in. We currently charge £12 for charities and £20 for individuals who also get the use of Rotary club insurance cover for the day.   We reinvest every penny we receive and strive to make the day all about Erith and our community.  We really are hoping that the venue change will work but are as unsure as yourself. There are better parking facilities and it really is just across the road from Morrison’s, KFC, McDonalds etc. We are producing more banners this year to really get the word out and will handing out and door dropping leaflets. We are all fingers crossed for good weather and a healthy attendance!!"

I was also contacted midweek by a reader who wishes local people to be made aware that a valuable local resource is about to be closed down with little consultation and very little advanced publicity – until now. A campaign has been started to stop a local recording and practice studio being closed down. Here is the situation in their own words:- “For over 20 years Abbey Music Studios (AMS) in Abbey Wood (London SE2) has provided a music hub for local artists and bands for rehearsal and recording purposes, and for musicians and interested visitors from all over the world. It has also provided free recording and group sessions to local NHS patients and other individuals with mental health and learning difficulties. The Studio building is within the grounds of Goldie Leigh Hospital and now the Oxleas NHS Trust who run the Hospital have given the Studio notice that its lease will not be renewed and that it must close by 6 July. The Trust say they want to use the building for other purposes. This is despite there being several other large, un-used buildings within the Hospital grounds, some which have stood empty for over 20 years. The closure will be a devastating blow to the livelihood of those who work at the Studio, and will remove the vital role the Studio plays in providing services to mental health patients and to the local community. The Studio building was completely derelict, vandalised, flooded and unusable when AMS took it over in 1994. The gaping holes in the roof of the building were repaired at the expense of AMS who have invested thousands of pounds in renovating the building and fitting it out with state of the art, made-to-measure, recording equipment, and rehearsal rooms. The NHS Trust paid no funds whatsoever towards the renovation of the building, but they now want to take it back in its pristine condition, with no offers of compensation or alternative accommodation. The Trust seem to be happy to put an end to local mental health patients’ music sessions, despite the fact that for some of these patients it is the only time they have away from their Units. The Studio has provided these 2 hour music sessions two or three times a week for over 20 years and continues to do so. Patients are able to play/learn musical instruments, record their work, rehabilitate and socialise in a safe and friendly environment. This also helps them from becoming institutionalised. The patients’ local Carers have always been delighted with the service the Studio provides. They understand the benefits that music can bring to those with mental health issues, but that understanding does not seem to be shared by the Trust’s managers. This is a service which should be embraced and developed, not discontinued. Of course, the Studio also provides a very beneficial service to bands, singers, DJs etc, in the local community and beyond. Thousands of musicians have cut their teeth at AMS over the last 20 years, and developed their craft to a professional level. Recent users of the Studio include Jaz Ellington, a successful contestant on The Voice UK TV show, and members of bands such as Squeeze and Nine Below Zero. AMS does not want to close, so please help us fight the closure by signing the petition to Save Our Studios (SOS)". Following receipt of this message, I have done some research and spoken to a number of people to find out more behind the story. It would seem that there are some concerns regarding the long term financial viability of the recording studio under the current management. Nevertheless I feel that the studio performs an important community function, and support is merited. 

The end video this week is a bit of a curiosity; The Kirkaldy Testing Museum is a very little known and sadly overlooked location not far from Blackfriars Bridge in London. I used to work just around the corner from the Testing Museum, and it always fascinated me. The museum describes itself thus:- "David Kirkaldy's Testing and Experimenting Works at 99 Southwark Street set international standards in testing materials from which everyone’s everyday life benefits today. Today, this unique Victorian workshop keeps alive our direct link with Kirkaldy's innovation, at the heart of this bustling commercial district of London. The Kirkaldy Testing Museum preserves Kirkaldy's unique Universal Testing Machine - the huge hydraulic powered machine he designed and had built in Leeds - in full working order in the premises he built to house it. As well as presenting the story of the family who ran the business for almost 100 years and of the wider development of materials testing, the workshop and the Universal Testing Machine provide a unique crucible for new experimentation and collaboration - which can inspire future generations of scientists and artists alike to continue enquiring into the properties of the materials on which we build our lives". Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Internet of Things.

The photo above was taken by me during the recent "Our Erith" art exhibition in Christ Church Erith. It shows the choir and altar area of the church, along with two landscape paintings done by local professional artist Patrick Hearne. I have now uploaded the first batch of photos taken at the exhibition onto my Flickr site. You can click here to see the photos.

There has been much press coverage over the last week about the lack of public toilets in the UK nowadays. The London Borough of Bexley does especially poorly in this respect. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to do more to save Britain's dwindling number of public lavatories. The Prime Minister said he would examine the case for lifting thousands of pounds of taxes from them every year to try to save them from closure. The search for public toilets in towns and cities has become more and more desperate in recent years because the number of lavatories has fallen markedly. Campaigners say that many have had to be closed because of councils have to pay onerous business rates on them. The British Toilet Association has estimated that 40 per cent of local authority run public conveniences have disappeared in the last decade, taking the number down from 12,000 to 6,000, in part because councils have to pay business rates on them. The Daily Telegraph reported earlier in the week that Public toilets have traditionally been liable for business rates in the same way as non-domestic premises such as shops and offices, while churches and premises used to care for disabled people are exempt. Four out of five councils have cut spending on public toilets since 2011. Overall expenditure has declined by almost a third in four years, with £21m less spent last year than in 2011, and 43 councils have slashed their budgets by more than seventy percent. Raymond Martin, managing director of The British Toilet Association, said: “This is a public facility. People have to go to the toilet. We have to do five things in life – we have to eat, sleep, breathe, drink and we have to go to the toilet. Failure to go to the toilet we get sick, we get disorientated, we have high blood pressure, we can have strokes – this is a health and wellbeing issue. It is about equality, social inclusion and bringing more older people into town. The reason that toilets are closing is councils do not get any financial support from government to do it, so they have to sit down and look at costs. I have calls coming into me from councils saying ‘how do we close down all our toilets’. Councils really want to provide these facilities, they really want to have them but commercially and economically they can't afford to do it. The fall in numbers of public lavatories meant more and more shop owners are complaining about people urinating in the street, and worse".

Following the account from Maggot Sandwich reader and occasional contributor Alan Magin last week, where he shared his recollections of his part in the construction of Thamesmead, and a photo of him from back in June 1969 where he was helping install a stressed steel beam onto what was to become East Bridge on Yarnton Way. This week I have been sent an Email from local resident Tom Burnham, also with a historic photo of Thamesmead. Tom writes:- "Incidentally, in 1969 I had a holiday job working for Bexley Council at Sidcup Place, where the Borough Engineer's Dept was located in those days, and was set to constructing a scale model of the Harrow Manor Way flyover at Abbey Wood station.  The model showed the then proposed station entrance directly off the flyover, adjacent to the bus lay-bys) so it's interesting to see that idea now coming into effect, 47 years later. It had also been expected that there would be a third platform so that trains could terminate there - I think a Victoria-Abbey Wood service was envisaged". Interesting stuff. It just goes to show that pretty much every plan has been thought of in some form before. The Abbey Wood Crossrail terminus design is obviously a lot less groundbreaking than many had considered. 

It seems that the vision of the “Smart Home” is more than a few years away. A survey has recently been carried out by accountancy giant PwC shows that British homeowners are more concerned with practical applications and financial advantages rather than the need to be “tech-tastic” when it comes to smart technology at home. The majority of participants (72 per cent) were uninterested in making their homes smarter, and were not looking to buy smart appliances, renewable energy devices or automated cleaning appliances over the next two to five years. Research shows that they could be convinced if there were financial incentives such as reduced energy bills or free installation of smart energy meters or lights. Less than ten per cent of consumers were not bothered by pressure to keep up with tech-savvy friends and family with smart homes and were unimpressed with the ability to control devices through an app, possibly preferring to stride over and flip the switch themselves. Concerns were expressed over the security of certain smart devices, after the revelations last year that smart TV’s could be used by hackers to spy on individuals, by remotely activating the TV’s camera and speech recognition microphone. People seem to want simplicity and reliability over additional functionality, according to the report. One of the problems very few people have considered when discussing “The Internet of Things” as digitally connected domestic devices are often called is that of durability and lifecycle. Whilst, for example, a central heating system may last for twenty or so years (with a boiler swap – out halfway through), a smart phone with an associated app to remotely control the heating system has an average life of not much more than a couple of years. There is no guarantee that the app will continue to be supported on later version of the phone or tablets’ operating system, or that the app itself will still be available. As some of you may know, my “day job” is as a technology analyst in a multinational consulting company. I did some research a little while back into the possibility of replacing some very expensive, proprietary interactive touch screen screens outside of office meeting rooms which showed who was using the rooms, and who would be in there next with much cheaper Android tablets fixed to the outside of the meeting room. The Android tablet hardware worked out at less than one third of the cost of a proprietary screens, but the problem was that the company that provided the meeting room screen software could not guarantee that their code would carry on working for at least five years, and after multiple Android updates. The project ended up dead in the water because of this. I think that many similar situations may well arise in domestic environments, where a device such as a heating or lighting system with a relatively long lifecycle is to be controlled by a tablet or mobile phone with a far shorter lifecycle, and with software with a shorter lifecycle still. I feel that much of the “internet of things” is actually a solution looking for a problem. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

You may recall that a while ago, back in December I featured a story which debunked the myth that the Homeleigh Care Home in Avenue Road, Erith was to be converted into a centre for fifty Syrian refugee families. The malicious hoax story had been created and spread via social media by extreme right wing hate group, the English Defence League. "Bexley is Bonkers" author Malcolm Knight had also investigated the story, and came to the same conclusion as I. In fact, the former care home has been converted into a refuge for homeless people, including women seeking shelter from domestic violence. i am not going to debate the bones of the story, as to whether the building is actually fit for purpose - others are already doing that, and I see no benefit in duplicating that discussion. What does concern me is that several of the residents of the former care home are photographed and named in the News Shopper piece. The location of Homeleigh House is very well known both locally and beyond. It strikes me as irresponsible for the News Shopper to run the story in the form that it has. Any disgruntled former partner could easily trace the women from the information published in the story - the possibilities are potentially dreadful. Bear in mind that it is only a few months since the appalling murder of Sian Blake and her two children in Pembroke Road, Erith. I would have expected the News Shopper to have been more responsible under the circumstances. 

Did you know that the words “Internet” and “Web” are no longer considered to be proper nouns? As of last week the bible of English speaking journalists, the Associated Press Stylebook , which offers a comprehensive guide to the usage of words, style, spelling and punctuation. "The argument for lowercasing Internet is that is has become wholly generic, like electricity and the telephone. It never was trademarked and is not based on any proper noun," writes Tom Kent, Associated Press Standards Editor, in an interview with technology news website, Slashdot:-  "The best reason for capitalising it in the past may have been that the term was new. At one point, we understand, 'Phonograph' was capitalised." The two names will join the likes of website (formerly Web site) and email (formerly e-mail). Thankfully, for capital letter enthusiasts, there's one prominent holdout: PDF, short for Portable Document Format, will remain capitalised. I don’t make the rules, I just report them.

I took the photo above recently; it shows an empty mini canister of Nitrous Oxide gas (commonly known as "laughing gas"). The canister was dumped on the road by the pedestrian crossing on Manor Road, Erith. "Legal Highs" are no longer legal;  Synthetic drugs such as "Spice" and substances such as Nitrous Oxide are now illegal to sell. The Psychoactive Substances Act  2016 came into force on the 6th April 2016. The Act will make it an offence to produce, supply or offer to supply any psychoactive substance if the substance is likely to be used for its psychoactive effects and regardless of its potential for harm. The only exemption from the Act are those substances already controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act, nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and medicinal products. The main intention of the Act is to shut down shops and websites that currently trade in ‘legal highs’. Put simply any substance will be illegal to produce or supply if it is likely to be used to get high. Possession of a psychoactive substance will not be an offence, except in a ‘custodial institution’ (prison, young offender centre, removal centre etc.). Possession with intent to supply, importing or exporting a psychoactive substance are now all offences. I have never understood the attraction of such substances, but after undertaking some online research, I came across the respected academic journal "Addiction". In an article aimed at UK lawmakers, The opening statement, by Prof Peter Reuter and Bryce Pardo of the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, outlines three problems with the Psychoactive Substances Act's total ban of new psychoactive substances (NPS): 1. The Act's definition of psychoactivity is too broad: it applies to substances of potential and known minimal to moderate harm. 2. The Act does not provide a way to establish psychoactivity. On this topic, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs has warned that "There is currently no way to define psychoactivity through a biochemical test, therefore there is no guarantee of proving psychoactivity in a court of law." 3. The Act's penalties for violations of a total ban are not proportional to the harm of the substance involved. Under the Act, judges cannot impose a common sense approach in sentencing since they will have little if any evidence on the harms of the specific drug involved in the case. On the other hand, Reuter and Pardo point out that total prohibition of NPS has two major potential advantages: 1. The Act will likely reduce the number of different NPS introduced in a given period. 2. The Act should reduce the cost of managing the NPS problem by eliminating the need to study and classify each newly emerging NPS. Professor Reuter says: "Given the prominence of the United Kingdom in drug policy affairs internationally, the choice made by the UK is likely to reverberate throughout the world. The Expert Panel that developed the Psychoactive Substances Bill identified several alternative approaches but did not have sufficient time to study them fully. So little is known about the subsequent Act's feasibility and consequences that it would have been better to delay until more effort was made to assess all the alternatives." Thought provoking stuff, indeed.  Do you have an opinion on the new act? Leave a comment below, or send me an Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The following announcement was made this week by Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association:- "Two youths have been arrested and charged in relation to 28 offences over the theft of motorbikes across Plumstead, Erith, Abbey Wood and Dartford. One aged 19, and officers from Metropolitan Police arrested the other 18, who are both from Erith, on Wednesday March 16th. The 19 year old is charged with 12 offences - four counts of theft of motorbikes, one count of burglary, one count of attempted burglary, two counts of driving without a licence, two counts of driving without insurance, and two counts of riding a bike without protective headgear. The 18 year old is charged with 16 offences - five counts of theft of a motorbike, one count of burglary, one count of attempted burglary, two counts of driving without a licence, two counts of driving without insurance, two counts of riding a bike without protective headgear and three counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order. This is merely the tip of an iceberg and where it is hoped our BikeWatch scheme will, in future, help to reduce offences".  Excellent news - illegal bike riding is a major problem in the local area, something I know is a major source of annoyance to the majority of law abiding local bikers. 

As many readers will know, whilst being very interested in science and technology, I do have issues with privacy, security and the way in which seemingly benign and everyday information is mined by large corporations and governments to enable them to profile us in ways that many could not even imagine. One such method was published earlier this week on IT news website The Register, and has just been picked up by the BBC, though they miss a few key points in their coverage. It turns out that popular social media behemoth Facebook is monitoring its users in ways that few could have ever previously considered. Professor Kelli Burns of The University of South Florida, with the help of several television journalists, has verified the fact that Facebook's mobile app grants itself access to your mobile phone's microphone by talking about a holiday she wanted to take. "I'm really interested in going on an African safari. I think it'd be wonderful to ride in one of those jeeps," she said out loud with her phone in hand. According to the report, under a minute later, the first story in her Facebook feed was about a safari. And a car advert soon appeared on her page. Of course, the "evidence" is purely anecdotal, and as soon as the report spread, Burns has walked back her claim, saying that she may have been searching online for the same things she said out loud – in which case Facebook may be reacting to other data it has picked up on her habits. It may also be worth noting that before Professor Burns became an academic, she spent seven years in corporate marketing and the course she teaches is the "principles of public relations." Facebook's app access to a phone's microphone is fact, and, critically, it now appears to be turned on by default, meaning you have to dig into your phone's innards to disable it. This is not the first time Facebook has faced this charge: last year it was also accused of listening to people and selling ads in response. It said at the time that users had to turn the microphone on. But that may have changed subsequently, since most users find their microphones are on as a default for the Facebook app. Facebook says this about its use of the microphone: "We use your microphone to identify the things you're listening to or watching, based on the music and TV matches we're able to identify." It also points out that it doesn't record conversations – although it doesn't need to actually record conversations, of course, to act on them and relay "relevant ads." And last year it claimed that listening was limited only to when you are writing a Facebook update. In response to Burns' report and other similar anecdotes reported online, the company has denied using what you say to place ads or impact your news feed. It said: "Facebook does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any way. Businesses are able to serve relevant ads based on people's interests and other demographic information, but not through audio collection." Of course, it is possible to parse that official response and question what Facebook's definitions of "inform" and "collection" are. Unlike other better-known voice services such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Echo, Facebook has given itself far greater control over what it can do with your microphone. Its explanations also follow a familiar trend of Facebook responses: vague policies, followed by clear denials, followed by a new set of policies. Apple's Siri assistant can listen to you any time, but there are three significant differences between it and Facebook. First, it waits for its "wake word" – in this case "Hey, Siri." Second, it is turned off by default. You have to activate it and then carry out four voice tests before it turns on. And third, it only works when plugged in (although Apple has reportedly considered turning off the plugged-in restriction). Likewise, Amazon's Echo technology listens for a wake word before carrying out any analysis – in its case, "Alexa." Amazon is also upfront about its collection of audio and allows you to delete recordings plus play around with settings. Facebook, on the other hand, gives itself access to your phone's microphone – seemingly by default despite earlier claims – and is capable of always listening and does not tell you what it does with the information it receives. None of this should comes as a surprise to people: Facebook has repeatedly given itself access to people's personal data and then begged forgiveness afterwards. It continually tweaks its privacy settings, requiring people to keep making changes to prevent the company from sharing the information you provide. And whenever there is an uproar, it announces small changes that require people to actively change their settings again. Most don't. Facebook claims the feature is good for users because it makes it easier and faster for you to post about what's going on around you. If that's a persuasive argument for you, continue on, but for everyone else the answer is to go into your phone's settings and manually prevent your Facebook app from accessing your microphone. How to turn your mobile phone microphone off:- iOS: Settings > Facebook > Settings > Microphone. Android: Settings > Privacy and emergency > App permissions. Find Facebook and turn off mic access. Better still, ditch the phone altogether. I know some people thought that I was mad for not having a mobile phone - perhaps they can see that my concerns were not "tin foil hat paranoia" after all. On top of all this, another story broke with a very similar message. If you are using a mobile device (phone or tablet), then you will almost certainly rely on encryption, whether you actually know about it or not. If you use services such as Gmail, or buy anything from an online retailer, or use online banking where the website URL beings with "HTTPS" - this indicates the connection between your device and the website is encrypted. It has generally been understood that this connection is practically uncrackable in normal situations, however a research paper has now put this into doubt. It has been known for some time that tiny fluctuations in electrical current during encryption routines, or even the sounds made by the system, can be picked up wirelessly to ascertain the encryption keys used – but it usually requires hooking up expensive analysis equipment and takes long periods of time to gather all the bits needed. The NSA's TEMPEST programme was set up to do just that. Now, in a paper published by the Association for Computing Machinery, researchers from Tel Aviv University have detailed how inexpensive kit can be used to harvest 4,096-bit RSA encryption keys in just a few seconds and from distances of around 10 metres (33 feet). This is the same security research group who hid a loop of wire and a USB radio dongle in a piece of pita bread last year and used it to steal encryption keys over the air. In their latest research, the team managed to pick up encryption keys using acoustics. As a computer's processor churns through the encryption calculations, the machine emits a high-frequency "coil whine" from the changing electrical current flowing through its components. By using a parabolic microphone, the team was able to pick up the coil whine from 10 meters (38 feet) away. Trouble is, that mic is a little obvious if you're trying to be sneaky, so they managed to get the same result from a mobile phone's microphone placed 30 centimetres (12 inches) away from the spied-on PC. In both cases it took an hour of listening to get the 4,096-bit RSA key. To combat this security hole, you need tweak your software, the team wrote. It's possible to use acoustic dampening inside a PC against sound attacks, Faraday cages to block electromagnetic emissions, and insulation of the enclosures of laptops. This is not practical in the real world. Instead, the team recommends encryption software writers build in "blinding" routines that insert dummy calculations into cryptographic operations. Software developers and website operators such as Amazon and Google are already working on this. Whilst this type of security exploit is (as far as I am aware) only being deployed in research labs at present, it will not be very long before criminals are using it "in the wild". You have  been warned. 

There have been rumours that the forthcoming Crossrail (Elizabeth Line) could be extended, with an additional station at London City Airport. The Wharf newspaper has reported that London City Airport has questioned why Transport for London is rebuffing its proposals to fund and build a Crossrail station at the Docklands hub. The newly-named Elizabeth Line has stops at Custom House, to the north of Victoria Dock, and at Woolwich and it is carried in tunnels underneath the airport but the airport itself is not on the initial roster of stations. A spokesman for the airport said that the station would generate the £3 million a year operational costs and another station would add just under three minutes to overall journey times according to the airport’s calculations. The airport is currently awaiting the outcome of its planning appeal against the decision to block its £300 million expansion plans with the new Mayor, Sadiq Khan, more receptive to the idea than his predecessor. It will be interesting to see what happens now that we have a new mayor in charge. 

The end video this week is a short film about how The Peabody Trust intends to rebuild and improve Thamesmead. It is not all a one - sided commercial for the redevelopment - there are some very interesting objections made by long - time Thamesmead residents. Give it a watch and see what you think.