The Exchange.

After a somewhat quiet period, things seem to be getting under way with the new organisation that have taken over the old Carnegie Library site in Walnut Tree Road. The group, called The Exchange have a number of ambitious plans for Erith and the surrounding area. They recently made the following announcement:-“The Exchange invite proposals from practitioners with ideas to transform London’s longest pier into a piece of art for the period of the Totally Thames Festival 2017. An opportunity for artists, designers, architects, performers, curators, and creatives to submit proposals for London's newest and most unique public art space. We are inviting proposals for a site-specific work based on Erith Pier throughout a three-week period in September 2017 that will coincide with the Totally Thames Festival and the Lighthouse Project. This is a unique opportunity for practitioners to have a significant new work programmed during a world-renowned festival. The commissioned practitioner will be awarded a budget of £8,000 to fully realise their idea for the pier.  The budget is to include all artistic, operational, installation and logistical costs of the work. There will be a workshop for practitioners interested in applying for the inaugural Pier Commission at Bexleyheath Archives on Thursday 6th July 5pm to 7pm, where Bexley Local Studies and Archives Manager Simon McKeon will talk through the history of Erith including the pier, Erith's industrial and pleasure resort history using a variety of visual and documentary material from the archives.  The workshop is free to attend, and artists will have an opportunity to look through the archives close at hand, booking prior to the event is essential". You can apply for a free place at the event by clicking here. I will be meeting with the people behind The Exchange shortly, and I hope to work with them on some of their community oriented projects in the future. It is apparent that investment is coming to the area after a long period of the area being relatively underfunded and ignored.

I have noticed something rather strange recently; in several locations in the local area I have encountered large streams of analogue magnetic recording tape in the road and on the pavement. The tape blows around in the wind and makes a hell of a mess. When I investigated, I found that the tape originated from fly tipped VHS video cassettes that had been broken open by persons unknown, allowing the tape inside to escape. What mystified me further was that this happened in more than one location, seemingly at around the same time. I witnessed it in James Watt Way Erith, Bexley Road in Northumberland Heath and in Avenue Road in Bexleyheath. It would seem that someone is dumping large quantities of old video cassettes in the roads of the area. This is somewhat mystifying, especially as the cassettes I saw dumped in Avenue Road were of the rarer Betamax variety. I had thought that most video cassettes of both VHS and Betamax technologies had long since disappeared – as far as I am aware, even the charity shops stopped taking analogue video cassettes some years ago. I am surprised that there were any left to be dumped.  I doubt that the kids that had broken open the tape cassettes had any idea of the history of the two video formats, or indeed of the format war which raged for several years. Something that might quite surprise you is that the price of old Betamax video recorders is currently going through the roof; a couple of years ago you could not give one away if you tried. Suddenly they are turning up on eBay and the bidding competition is fierce. Prices of £250 and upwards have been noted. What is the reason for this? Well, it does not seem to be down to any love for the outdated video format (which whilst it failed in the domestic home market, it was the cornerstone of many TV news and outside broadcast units for many years). It would appear that people are coming across family videos recorded on Betamax cassettes and wish to digitise them. Most professional video transfer services can handle VHS and the common broadcast formats, but very few are capable of doing anything with a Betamax format cassette. People with old recordings of weddings and family events realise that if they wish to be able to see them again, they will need to locate a device capable of playing the tape format - hence the sudden upsurge of interest. The ironic thing is, it is pretty likely that the tapes will be unwatchable even when a suitable player is used. Both Betamax and VHS cassettes deteriorate over time, even when stored in ideal conditions. A thirty year old video tape will have demagnetised and printed through so much that it will almost certainly show on screen as a mess of flickering static with a few undersaturated, ghostly images of what remains of the original recording now.  I recently have read quite a lot about the format wars between VHS and Betamax back in the early 1980's. From all that I have read, it became apparent that Sony, the creators of the Beta format were pretty much to blame for the demise of what initially was a far technically superior video format than the relatively pedestrian VHS system. The main determining factor between Betamax and VHS was the cost of the recorders and length of recording time. Betamax was, in theory, a superior recording format over VHS due to resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines), slightly superior sound, and a more stable image; Betamax recorders were also of higher quality construction. But these differences were negligible to consumers, and thus did not justify either the extra cost of a Betamax VCR (which was often significantly more expensive than a VHS equivalent) or Betamax's shorter recording time. JVC, which designed the VHS technology, licensed it to any manufacturer that was interested. The manufacturers then competed against each other for sales, resulting in lower prices to the consumer. Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax initially and so was not pressured to reduce prices. Only in the early 1980s did Sony decide to licence Betamax technology to other manufacturers, such as Toshiba and Sanyo. What Sony did not take into account was what consumers wanted. While Betamax was believed to be the superior format in the minds of the public and press (due to excellent marketing by Sony), consumers wanted an affordable video recorder (a VHS machine was often around a hundred pounds less than an equivalent Betamax one); Sony believed that having better quality recordings was the key to success, and that consumers would be willing to pay a higher retail price for this, whereas it soon became clear that consumer desire was focused more intently on longer recording time, lower retail price, and compatibility with other machines for cassette sharing (as VHS was becoming the format in the majority of homes). The real Betamax killer was that for the first few years, the maximum length of recording was limited to one hour on Betamax, whereas VHS could stretch to four hours with reduced image quality, critically long enough to record an entire American football game - the lucrative mass American market both systems were looking to crack. Sony had the attitude of "We know best" as to what the market wanted, and ignored requests for features that quickly became standard with their competitors. Consequently Betamax is now considered alongside the 8 - Track cartridge as a dodo technology. You can read about the history of the video format war by clicking here. If you are of the opinion that Betamax is far too mainstream, well known and commonplace, do yourself a favour by visiting the Philips V2000 web site here. You can also read more about other format wars by clicking here.

If there is one things that can symbolise the difference between Bexley Council and neighbouring Greenwich Council it is the way in which they look after their parks and open spaces. This can be exemplified if one takes a ride on the 99 bus along Woolwich Road. First you pass by the Upper Belvedere Recreation Ground, which earlier this week looked like a jungle – weeds were rife and it was apparent that the grass had not been mowed for at least several months. When one continues on to Bostall Heath, over the border in Greenwich. This is immaculately mowed and evidently very well looked after. I don’t think very much more needs to be said on the subject.

Word reaches me that the Bexley Growth consultation event held in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre last Saturday was as predicted, little more than a “box ticking exercise”. The event was designed to let locals offer their opinions on the proposed growth strategy for the London Borough of Bexley over the next three decades. The consultation roadshow has been located in public areas around the borough over the last few weeks, and the appearance in Erith had been scheduled to be open from 12 until 4pm on Saturday June the 10th. My informant tells me that the stand was being taken down at 1.30pm, only ninety minutes after the event had started, and two and a half hours before it was due to end. I cannot say that I am very surprised by this – I had intended to visit the roadshow after my return from a shopping trip to Bexleyheath, but when I arrived back in Erith, of the consultation stall and staff there was no sign. It seems obvious to me and others that Bexley Council were making a charade of the whole public consultation – they are not interested in what local residents want; they already have their minds made up as to what we are going to get. Having said that, some of the idea put forward do seem like a very good idea – the proposal to extend the River Thames walkway to run all of the way from the Isle of Grain to Woolwich uninterrupted is an example of one improvement scheme that I for one would wholeheartedly support. The basic premise of the Bexley Growth Strategy is defined thus:- “A new neighbourhood will be created in Belvedere growing out from a potential new Crossrail station, accommodating more than 8,000 homes focussed on a public transport interchange and a new town centre that will include a luxury outlet shopping destination, with the area generating up to 3,500 new jobs. Erith will provide the opportunity to deliver an exciting and well-connected urban riverfront destination of at least 6,000 new homes, with the area supporting over 2,000 new jobs through a shift to new engineering and manufacturing activities associated with the Maker Movement. Situated next to one of London’s remaining marshlands along the River Thames, Slade Green will be transformed into a high quality, neighbourhood with a new local town centre set around a potential new Crossrail station and access to outstanding recreational spaces, delivering 8,000 new homes and 1,000 new jobs.   Thamesmead will provide more than 4,000 new homes and 5,000 new jobs, triggered by the Housing Zone and a new Crossrail station and supported by local transport improvements, a new local centre at Abbey Wood station and with better access to green and digital infrastructure. Crayford will provide the opportunity to consolidate and redefine the town centre, opening up the north of the area to more than 1,000 new high quality homes with increased access to a more naturalised River Cray. Employment will remain important to Crayford, with uses consolidated to the east, delivering 1,000 additional jobs. The borough’s strategic transport links (both road and rail) are generally east-west, based on connections with central London.  North-south movement is difficult as major roads and rail connections tend to form barriers to cross/orbital movement.  Transport investment in east London and north Kent has often left Bexley behind.  Bexley is one of just two London boroughs with no Tube, Overground or tram services at all.  Basing growth on the existing network alone is not going to deliver what Bexley needs.  Bexley’s transport picture comprises high reliance on the car, a lack of choice of good public transport, congestion, poor air quality and excessive travel times.  These factors mean Bexley has been a less attractive place to live”. All very laudable intentions; having said that, you may recall that two weeks ago I reported that I had heard a rumour that the Eastern part of the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, Erith was to be sold off to a property developer. I still have not had a confirmation or rebuttal of the rumour, but I have, whilst researching this piece on the Bexley Growth Strategy, come across what may well be a “smoking gun”. The report states:- “Parts of the Belvedere, Fraser Road, Manor Road and Crayford industrial areas will be released for other uses; however, the retained areas will be intensified and promoted as strategically important employment locations. Transport improvements, such as bus service enhancements as well as a possible Belvedere - Rainham river crossing (this has now been cast into severe doubt that this will happen), digital connectivity enhancements, including the use of dark fibre networks, and modernised business premises, such as the introduction of shared working spaces and environmental enhancements, will aid these areas.  In this way, the areas will become increasingly attractive for new industries including those displaced from elsewhere within the opportunity areas”. My interpretation of this is that several of the current industrial areas in the borough – including part of the Europa Industrial Estate will be sold off for housing, if not straight away, then within a few years. It seems to myself and others that Bexley Council is gambling on Crossrail being extended from Abbey Wood and onto Erith, Slade Green, Dartford and beyond to Ebbsfleet to connect with other rail services there, and to additionally create a transport link from central London into the forthcoming Paramount London theme park. No Government decision has yet been made in respect of an extension, although the Bexley Growth Strategy, which I featured last week seems to take it for granted. Many of the plans the council have published, such as a new town centre for Lower Belvedere, as well as additional new housing seem to take the Crossrail extension for granted. Personally I think the extension is more likely to happen than not, as a far higher percentage of the line would be above ground, and thus both easier and cheaper to build than the original Crossrail project. The only real engineering challenge would occur at the Higham and Strood Tunnel, which would need extensive widening. It seems to me that Bexley Council will have more than egg on their faces if the extension project does not get off the ground.

I was standing on the Kent bound platform at Greenwich station in the week, waiting for a train to take me back to Erith, when I had a bit of a reminisce; I can dimly recall the days of the old blue and yellow slam door trains that used to run on the Dartford via Greenwich line in the days before the Networker trains arrived. The lower of the two illustrative photos above is used with the kind permission of transport photographer Tom Burnham. Click on either image for a larger view. After a bit of Googling, I was able to discover that these old trains were called the 415 class. Regular reader and occasional contributor Justin Bailey, who is an authority on UK trains, having written a book on the subject in the past, has some recollections on these historic commuter trains:- "In the 1950s and 1960s British Rails’ Southern Region operated a wide range of EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) with a bewildering array of identifying designations. However, the readers of ‘The Maggot Sandwich’ will probably be most familiar with the type that worked the North Kent Lines for more than 40 years, the Class 415 4-EPB and the later 416 2-EPB. These trains plied the Woolwich, Bexleyheath and Sidcup lines for more than four decades carrying commuters into London Termini such as Victoria, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Blackfriars and Cannon Street. The first batch of the Class 415 were designed by the Southern Region and were functional more than fancy to say the least. Little more than flat faced carriages on wheels with an electric motor under the floors, they operated in sets of 4 coaches or 2 for the later Class 416. The EPB designation came from the type of braking they used, being Electro Pneumatically Braked. The Class 415 was introduced in 1951 but it wasn’t long before it became clear that more would be needed so a second batch was built. This time however it was designed by the British Rail design team and based on an existing BR Carriage type. The BR designed 415 was introduced in 1960 and at first glance looked the same as the SR designed units. However subtle differences existed at the front and sides which were even flatter and mundane than before! The internal layout of a mix of ‘open’ (2+3 rows of seats back to back through half a carriage length) and individual partitioned compartments (2 rows of seats seating 6 people opposite each other) evolved over time as well. The almost identical looking BR designed 2 carriage 416 was introduced in 1953 so trains could be made up to 10 coach lengths as platforms across suburban London and Kent were lengthened. A second batch of this type was also built but in contrast to how the 415 evolved this second batch was actually based on the earlier SR Design! By the late 70s it was clear that no new design was on the horizon for the Southern, so having to make do and reuse as the Southern so often did, it was decided to refurbish many of the 415s with the 416s following suit in the mid 80s. By now the units had gone through three different liveries and were into their fourth. Firstly BR green, then BR blue followed by BR blue and grey and lastly the colours of ‘Network Southeast’. By this time the individual compartments were being phased out after a series of attacks on women and even a murder in 1988. Compartment fitted stock was not allowed to run after 8.00pm. Then in the mid 1990s as the new Class 465/466 ‘Networkers’ were being introduced, the 415s and 416s were taken out of service for good having served the Kent lines of the Southern for 45 years. It was the end of an era not just in railway design but for commuting as well. They might have been cold and draughty in the winter from the iconic sounding slam doors and the ride might not have been as smooth, but with them went proper sprung seats, the guards van (and guard!) and windows that opened all the way!"

One thing that does concern me is that the ambitious plans to relaunch Erith Market seem to have to all purposes fallen by the wayside. Regular readers may recall that the market was restarted last year, but it lasted less than six weeks. The photo above was taken at the relaunch event of the market, and shows the then Conservative London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith with leader of Bexley Council Teresa O'Neill talking to a stall holder - interestingly that was the only time that particular stall came to the market. Click on the photo for a larger version. When the market was restarted in the Spring of last year, many readers who contacted me at the time were very keen for the newly relaunched market to succeed, but they felt that it was being “set up to fail”. The fact that the market was only being held on a Wednesday, and not also on Saturdays was raised as a major restriction on how successful it could be. One concerned reader wrote at the time:-“ I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only ones that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week”.  I think the sentiment is to be applauded – the market needs to be accessible to as many people as possible – not just those who are able to attend on what for many people is a working day. Opening on Saturdays would be a bonus for all parties in my opinion, and would also benefit the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, as shoppers attracted to the market from Morrison’s would quite likely also visit the shopping centre. There was what initially appeared to be some good news on the horizon though; I understood that Bexley council had submitted a planning application to expand the size of the market up to thirty two stalls. This would return the market to the kind of size it was in the late 1970’s / early 1980’s when it was located on the Pier Road car park, and held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was always a very well attended event. Since this application was submitted, things have gone very quiet, and if my suspicions are correct, the plans for a relaunch may well have been quietly shelved. If any reader has information regarding this issue, please contact me in confidence by Emailing me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association have published the following warning of another phone scam that is currently aimed at vulnerable people in the local area:- “We have received many reports of telephone calls supposedly from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. HMRC NEVER telephone! The caller claims that you have unpaid taxes and that unless you speak to a case worker and clear the debt, you will face arrest and a law suit. The caller has an aggressive tone and is threatening. The call comes from 0203 322 7241 but can also be made from similar numbers. Please warn everyone you know, especially the elderly or vulnerable.” There have also been several reports of anti-social and threatening behaviour from masked youths riding bikes. Police in Barnehurst report that youths on off road bikes in Martens Grove Park  have been identified and issued with a section 59 warning, which means if he is seen to ride again in an antisocial manner then the bike will be seized and possibly destroyed. Other illegal biker, quite likely members of the Bike Life TV UK gang, who are illegally riding motor and quad bikes on Norman Road, Lower Belvedere near to the recycling centre. Groups are turning up in the early evenings and using the area as a racing ground. This is causing issues for the staff at the centre, who are being intimidated by the group. If anyone has any information about anyone they know who uses this area as a race track then please get in contact with the police.

Nationwide supermarket chain Morrison's are in hot water this week; they have just been subject to a heavy fine from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for spamming customers with unsolicited marketing Emails, after the customers had specifically asked to be unsubscribed. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the company had broken the law when it deliberately sent more than 200,000 emails to people who had previously opted out of receiving such emails. The emails, sent between October 24 and November 25 2016, were titled "Your account details" and went out to Morrisons More loyalty cardholders that had opted out of Morrisons More card marketing. According to the ICO, the message told cardholders that they had opted out of such emails – then asked them to change their preferences to start receiving coupons and points. It also helpfully "provided directions on the steps to follow to opt back in to receive marketing". The email was sent out to 236,651 people, but only 130,671 emails were successfully received. In an unsurprising twist, one of the recipients was irritated that they received the email despite having unsubscribed from Morrisons' direct marketing – and reported the chain to the ICO. The ICO's investigation found that the email in question "would be in itself sent for the purposes of direct marketing, and so is subject to the same rules as other marketing emails". In deliberately sending the emails, the ICO said, Morrisons had deliberately contravened the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and issued it with the fine, to be paid by July 13th. In an interview with The Register website,  Deputy Information Commissioner Simon Entwistle said: "It is vital that the public can trust companies to respect their wishes when it comes to how their personal information is used for marketing. These customers had explicitly told Morrisons they didn't want marketing emails about their More card. Morrisons ignored their decision and for that we've taken action."

The end video this week is of a historic local structure that very few people are actually aware of. Howbury Moat in Slade Green - Ancient Monument - Grade II Listed Tithe Barn. Between Slade Green and Crayford Marshes is Howbury Moat, a moated site dating from around 900 AD that originally surrounded Howbury Manor House. Past Lords of the Manor included Bishop Odo of Bayeux, brother of William the Conqueror, who was given land for the part he played in the Battle of Hastings. This was formerly the manor of Howbury, recorded simply as Hov in Domesday Book, from the Old English hōh, a heel of land. Slade Green was first mentioned in the 16th century, but the name is probably of earlier origin. A ‘slade’ was “a little dell or valley; or a flat piece of low, moist ground” and it was certainly the latter meaning that applied here. The ruins and moat of the house called Howbury constitute a scheduled ancient monument, and a Jacobean tithe barn survives, but in deteri­orating condition. The structures are on private land and are not generally accessible to the public but can be seen from a nearby footpath. Give the video a watch and please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Moat House.

There has been somewhat of an air of mystery surrounding Moat House in James Watt Way. As I have previously reported, the brand new apartment block suffered damage after a severe fire caused by what is currently thought to have been an electrical fault in the roof mounted solar panels on the building on the 8th of August. The residents of the social housing block were successfully evacuated and put into temporary accommodation in a hotel. It was anticipated that repairs to the fire damaged roof of the apartment block would be completed by the end of August. This would appear to not be the case, however. At the time of writing, the block is still empty and unoccupied, even though it is now a month later than the date when the apartments were meant to be re-occupied. I recently walked past the block at a little after 9pm in the evening. All the lights were out, and the place was silent. It is surprising how nothing has been written in the local press about the situation, especially bearing in mind how high profile the news of the fire and subsequent evacuation was – the story made the national press in a few instances. I have subsequently discovered that things are worse than originally reported. A couple of sources have informed me that the residents of Moat House have now been transferred out of the Marriott hotel accommodation they were originally given, and relocated into cheaper local bed and breakfast accommodation; one (unconfirmed) report I have heard is that in one case a woman with two children is having to share a single room in a Bed and Breakfast - more on this later, as it turns out there is more to this story. If this was not bad enough, I have also been told that Moat Housing told the evacuated residents - many of those who only had the clothes they stood up in - that they could spend up to a specified budget on essential items such as replacement clothes, toiletries and other items needed for everyday life. Moat said that they would then reimburse the evacuated residents. I have heard accounts that Moat have reneged on this agreement, leaving residents out of pocket. I must emphasise that I am awaiting verification of this, but the information comes from a previously reliable source. The Moat affordable rent apartment block was a flagship development in Erith, promising (relatively) cheap housing for those in most need. It was part funded by the Mayor of London's Office, and was designed to be a flagship model for new housing in Greater London. I have been in contact with someone who is involved with the situation at Moat House, and I have discovered that the position is actually worse than had been anticipated. My contact informs me that at present the block will very likely remain empty for months, due to a combination of factors. Firstly Moat are awaiting a fire report which will analyse and identify the precise cause of the fire that destroyed much of the roof and damaged the top floor - at present the diagnosis of an electrical  fault is supposition, and is not verified at this time. Tenants will not be able to move in until the cause has been identified and rectified. On top of this, I am told that some of the reports published in the News Shopper and elsewhere, with Moat tenants being quoted as saying that they were being threatened with being thrown out of a hotel were simply untrue with no basis whatsoever in fact. I have also been told by an impeccably reliable and authoritative source that all Moat Housing Association tenants are required as a condition of their tenancy contract to have taken out private insurance on the contents of their apartment; Almost none of the tenants in Moat house had this insurance, leaving them both financially exposed, and in contravention of their tenancy agreements. Moat are currently trying to get former Moat House tenants into more suitable medium term accommodation whilst the investigative and remedial work is carried out on the fire damaged apartment building. The problem is the acute shortage of such housing in The London Borough of Bexley. It is ironic that the construction of Moat House was designed to alleviate the social housing requirement in the borough, but instead it has ended up in making the situation worse. It looks like Moat House could be empty and unoccupied until well after Christmas; I feel that this story will run for quite some time. If you have any insight into the Moat House fire and the subsequent situation, please drop me a line – it can be in complete confidence should you so wish – to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Some more much needed social housing is being constructed in Erith. Work is well under way to build four three bedroomed town houses and twelve two bedroomed flats in West Street on the site of the old St. John’s Hall. The hall used to be used by a company called Re-Instate Ltd, whose primary purpose was to offer a sheltered workshop environment to adults with Mental Health problems and Learning Disabilities. Those who attended Re-Instate gained experience of work, were given training in various job skills, mix with others, and over time gained confidence and self-esteem. Re-Instate seem to still be operating, and their website can be seen here. I am guessing that they have sold off the old site to property developers and have used the money to find a new base of operations elsewhere. I will be covering Re-Instate in more details in a future edition of the Maggot Sandwich.

On Tuesday afternoon I had occasion to be in Avenue Road, Bexleyheath for a meeting. The shopping area there is rather old fashioned, and all of the better for it. The area has not changed very much since the 1930's, when many of the properties were originally constructed. I like it a lot. The Co-Op store there has a modern facade and internal layout, but its' cultural and historical DNA is still very much present. In the newspapers and publications section of the store, amongst the usual copies of the Sun and the Telegraph were a couple of copies of The Morning Star - the tabloid rag of the communist party. It was not really that surprising that the little read propaganda sheet would be on sale in the Bexleyheath branch of the Co-Op. It was after all the same branch that the late Soviet spy and traitor Melita Norwood used to do most of her grocery shopping, along with the other Co-Op branch in Long Lane. She lived nearby in Garden Avenue for very many years. I wonder who would buy the paper nowadays?

You may recall that I gave extensive coverage to the recent relaunch of Erith Market, which was visited by then London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith. Unfortunately only a handful of weeks later the whole thing spluttered to a halt when no market traders bothered to turn up – at the high point there had only been six stalls, which was nothing like enough to build up a sustainable interest. The other problem was the decision to hold the market on a Wednesday – as one regular Maggot Sandwich reader called Derek put it recently:- “I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only one that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week”. Bexley Council have recently submitted a new planning application for a far larger and more ambitious market plot, which will stretch along Pier Road from Cross Street in the West to the boundary of Morrison’s car park in the East. It would potentially involve thirty two stalls, though at this point what goods they would be selling is not outlined at this point. I sincerely hope that the new attempt is successful – the prime requirement in my mind is that the market is open on Saturdays, and not just Wednesdays. As Derek wrote, many local residents cannot attend a market held during a working week, as they are working. I am also concerned that the previous, half-hearted attempt at a relaunch may scare off some potential stall holders. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The latest edition of the Good Beer Guide has some very encouraging words for Bexley’s micro pubs. The first local micro pub was the Door Hinge in Welling, shortly thereafter followed by the Penny Farthing in Crayford, then the Broken Drum in Blackfen. All three of these fine establishments feature in the new Good Beer Guide, along with the Compass Ale House in Gravesend.  Bearing in mind that South East London and North Kent have been at the forefront of the micro pub revolution  - the area has done much to promote these no frills, no television pubs which encourage the art of conversation and discourage the use of smart phones. Another micro Pub called The Hopper's Hut is opening on the 7th October in Sidcup - thanks to long time reader Barney for the information. Micro pubs tend to be set up in former retail units, rather than in public house premises. It would be nice to see a micro pub in Erith or Northumberland Heath, though I think Northumberland Heath would be a more attractive location than Erith, due to the fact that Wetherspoons are actively looking for a potential pub outlet in Erith. As I have written before, the most likely venue for a new local Wetherspoons pub would be the old Carnegie Library building in Walnut Tree Road (see the photo above - click on it for a larger view), which has been abandoned and unused for nearly six years.  The old library building was going to be converted into a training centre for the hospitality and hotel industry as part of Bexley College, but the funding fell through, and the project was cancelled. Now that Bexley College is being administered by Bromley College, the future of other potential collaborative projects is unclear. Wetherspoons have a very good reputation for sensitive restoration of old buildings; my understanding is that the former Carnegie Library has a severe damp problem on the main brick frontage, and the lack of preventative maintenance has caused a number of fairly serious issues with the building fabric. Wetherspoons have deep enough pockets to be able to finance major construction, conversion and conservation work if they did decide to purchase the building for use as a pub / restaurant. The only downside I can think of is that the former library has no local parking, though local public transport links are excellent - the library building is very close to Erith Station, and the bus halts in front of Erith Riverside Shopping Centre are just around the corner. This does not usually deter Wetherspoons, who seem more interested in the local customer demographic, than car parking issues.

As I have written in the past, issues with smart utility meters seem to be continuing. Just in the last week, it has been announced that Smart meters will benefit suppliers nearly twice as much as consumers in terms of cost savings, according to an assessment by the late Department for Energy and Climate Change. The government's £11bn smart meter project will require energy suppliers to offer 53 million meters to homes and small businesses by 2020. Smart meters are being rolled out in two phases. The mass rollout phase is expected to begin next month, after several major delays. There are now more than 3.6 million smart meters in operation. A Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee “evidence check” of smart meters noted that "although the scale and durability of such savings is contested and it would appear that the rollout could alter consumption levels by 2–3 per cent.”Nick Hunn, CTO of WiFore Consulting, told the committee he was sceptical of the extent to which consumers will change their behaviour for a relatively modest financial reward, arguing that “£26 a year or 7p a day is not a big incentive”, and that “there are far cheaper ways of achieving savings”. The government has pegged the overall cost benefits at £17 billion, which will also include network benefits such as reduced outage notification calls, fault fixing; generation benefits, and reduction in CO2. However, the committee criticised the smart meter rollout for having too many objectives. "The government should be clearer about the primary purpose of smart metering and use this to drive evaluation of the project. Taking this approach will help make future evidence check statements clearer,” it said. It also said the government needs to do more to communicate the national benefits of smart metering alongside the potential cost savings and efficiencies for individual consumers. The impact of smart meters will be limited without this support from installers and Smart Energy GB, the public engagement body for the programme, according to the committee. Rob Smith, head of policy and public affairs at Smart Energy GB, has also warned that the programme will only succeed if people are made aware of the benefits. The report also found "unwarranted concerns in media reports" about smart meter security could diminish public trust in the programme. It said further efforts may be necessary to convince the wider public that smart meters are secure. This is all very well, but as has been demonstrated by more than one IT security organisation, the smart meters are very far from secure - the meters report back to their energy supply company by an unsecured 3G phone signal, which can easily be intercepted and manipulated.  I get the feeling this will run and run.

The following announcement has been made by the local Police:- If you would like to become involved with Neighbourhood Watch and set up a scheme for your road (if you do not have one), please let us know. If you are unsure if you do have a scheme in your road, again, email us and we can let you know. Surgery and Street Briefing dates and times for Northend Ward in OCTOBER 2016 are listed below.

MONDAY 03/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530  OUTSIDE SLADE GREEN PRIMARY AND HABERDASHERS SCHOOL, SLADE GREEN ROAD

TUESDAY 04/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530  OUTSIDE PEARESWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL, PEARESWOOD ROAD

SATURDAY 08/OCTOBER/2016  1100-1200  FOREST ROAD CAFÉ

MONDAY 10/OCTOBER/2016  1030-1130 SLADE GREEN LIBRARY

WEDNESDAY 19/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530 OUTSIDE SLADE GREEN PRIMARY AND HABERDASHERS SCHOOL, SLADE GREEN ROAD

FRIDAY 21/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530 OUTSIDE PEARESWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL, PEARESWOOD ROAD

TUESDAY 25/OCTOBER/2016  1000-1100  FOREST ROAD CAFE

If there are any issues that affect you or you have any information you feel we may need to know, please come and see us. All information is dealt with in the strictest confidence. If you have no issues or information, come and see us anyway! Our phone is working now but please remember it is only on when we are at work and is only for information purposes, so please leave a name and number if you call us and we don't answer. Alternatively we can be reached via email on NorthendSNT@met.police.uk. If you need to see police always dial 101 for non emergencies and 999 for emergencies. All dates and team information will be loaded onto our website over the next couple of days. Access the site by clicking here.

It would seem that the Near Field Communication (NFC) "tap and pay" security exploit I described in February of last year is now being employed in real life. The hack, which utilises weaknesses in the encryption and transport of data between a smartphone and an NFC reader is now being reported by the BBC News website here. This potentially can mean that a user paying for goods or services by "tap to pay" with their mobile telephone could end up with money being taken from their bank account by unauthorised persons. Well, you heard it first from me, over a year ago. Contactless payment is fraught with potential danger - after all, it was only around six months ago that the bug in the UK authorisation was fixed - whilst payments in Pounds Sterling via tap and pay are limited to a maximum limit of £30, the same limit did not apply to other currencies. If a fraudster used captured tap and pay credentials to extract money, the sky was the limit if the exploit was undertaken in Euros or Dollars, for example. That has now been (finally) fixed, but only after a very long delay. I won't use any form of contactless payment - the system is just too full of security holes. I returned my tap and pay debit card and was issued with a non - NFC one instead (banks will issue you with a "vanilla" card, but you usually have to ask for them especially - many banks are sending out NFC enabled cards by default nowadays). 

Bexley is Bonkers author Malcolm Knight has been giving extensive coverage to the utter hash that Bexley Council has made of the restructuring of Bexleyheath Broadway, amongst other areas. In fact if memory serves, his blog began after a series of interactions with the Highways department of the council, and his very unfavourable experiences as a result. Now the Police have become unwittingly involved – after a rather nasty crash on what is now locally being called the “Magic Roundabout” – at the junction with the Broadway and Albion Road which is covered in variegated tiles – the original roundabout on the site was removed, and the subsequent section of road is now neither a junction, a crossing or a roundabout, but a sort of mixture of all three which is both everything and nothing at the same time. The number of collisions and near misses that have resulted from this poorly thought out change have sky rocketed. This week a Police car was involved in a collision with another vehicle, right in the middle of the very confusing turning. You can read all about the incident on the News Shopper website, by clicking here. It would seem that local residents and local paper readers are pretty much unanimous in their condemnation of the highway changes, which are judged to be confusing, dangerous and unnecessary.

It is not very long now until the open day at the Erith Quarry development. The following press release has been made by Grayling - the public relations consultant to London and Quadrant and the Anderson Group - the joint developers of the new housing estate:- The Quarry Erith invites locals for first glimpse with a family fun day:- "To celebrate work being underway, and to offer the local community a first chance to view the site, The Quarry Erith team would like to  invite families and locals to join them for an action-packed family fun day on Saturday 15 October from 10am to 4pm. Located off Carlton Road, the Culture and Community day will offer a food fair with locally-sourced treats and free children’s entertainment including a nature trail with children’s TV personality Jess French, animal face painting, a mini-mining experience, selfie station and creature crafts. There will also be an opportunity to meet the team and find out more about The Quarry’s transformation into an exceptional eco-development of at least 600 new homes and a state-of-the-art primary school. Councillor Linda Bailey, who will be opening the event, commented: “I am really pleased to be opening The Quarry Community and Culture Day. This event looks like it is set to be a really fun day for families with a host of activities that kids will love. It is also going to offer the community a first glimpse of the exciting future this development is offering Erith, which I am certainly looking forward to seeing.” The Quarry is a joint venture by L and Q and The Anderson Group, and represents a shared vision to create inspiring communities that offer residents a better way of living. Cathy Lloyd, Sales and Marketing Director at L and Q commented: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming the local community to our Culture and Community Day. The Quarry has played an important role in the lives of local people for more than a century and we’re keen to celebrate this, as well as providing lots of free, family-friendly activities.” Ahead of the event, The Quarry Erith team is also encouraging locals to share their historical photos of the site for inclusion in a public exhibition and art project. Visitors are encouraged to bring their photos along to the event or share via email to info@thequarryerith.co.uk. This is a ticketed event. To secure your place, and pre-book a slot, please register by clicking here or contact info@thequarryerith.com. Limited car parking is available on site. Please indicate if you require parking by emailing the address above. Prospective homebuyers interested in finding out more about The Quarry can register their interest at thequarryerith.co.uk and follow developments on Facebook and Twitter." I will be going along to the event with my camera - I am booked for the 10am session should you want to come along and say hello.

The end video this week shows one of the Rotative Beam Engines in operation at the Crossness Pumping Station - a Grade 1 listed industrial building. The beam engines, which are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams. The whole pumping station was the brainchild of superb Victorian engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Joseph Bazalgette lived from 1819 to 1891 and was one of the most distinguished Civil Engineers of the period. After considerable experience on railway projects he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855, having previously been in the employ of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers.The ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, when the Houses of Parliament became so smelly that the members demanded action, was the starting point of the sewer system as we know it today. Bazalgette built 83 miles of ‘interceptory’ sewers that prevented raw sewage from running into the Thames and took it to the east of London where it could be put into the river with minimal effect on the population. This system involved three major pumping stations, at Abbey Mills (in the Lea Valley), at Deptford, and at Crossness on the Erith / Abbey Wood marshes. Whilst the building remains at Abbey Mills, the pumps and engines were removed earlier this century. However, at Crossness the spectacular building and the engines and pumps they contain remain as a monument to Bazalgette’s genius in solving London’s problems. In addition to his achievement in establishing an effective sewerage system for the whole of London, Bazalgette was also responsible for the Thames Embankments, for Battersea, Hammersmith and Putney Bridges, and many other of London’s capital projects, including the Woolwich Ferry. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Self Service? No Service.

An event took place earlier this week that many had hoped would not happen. Bexley College in Walnut Tree Road was taken over by Bromley College. It has been marketed as a merger by Bromley College, who have also taken over Greenwich Community College. This is to form a new conglomerate called the South East London College Group. Unfortunately in the process, several key members of staff have fallen by the wayside, most notably Danny Ridgeway, the former Principal of Bexley College who has “retired”. The combined college organisation will be headed up by Sam Parrett, the former principal at Bromley College, who is now leading the newly-formed London South East Colleges. The financial success of Bexley College had been in doubt for some time. A combination of cuts in central funding, and a change in the law caused them all sorts of headaches. When the law changed, requiring all young people to remain in full time education or training until the age of eighteen has been very problematic for many further education and community colleges. There is a significant minority for whom education is not suitable, and who would rather be out working (or not, as may be the case). They leave school, sign up for a college course which they don’t attend, and they drop out of education. The funding their sign – up generates is soon cut when their non – attendance is noticed.  Many colleges suffer from “ghost” students to some degree or other. I think the whole ruling that young people should be in full time training or education until the age of eighteen is fundamentally flawed, and really needs to be revisited.

Another piece of bad, but not unexpected news happened this week; Harriet Harper, the Project Manager for Regeneration and Assets for Bexley Council sent the following message to members of Erith Town Forum:- "I am emailing to update you on Erith Market; unfortunately a number of stall holders are unable to attend the market tomorrow and it has therefore had to be cancelled. As you are aware, the market launched as a trial in March and it has proved difficult to establish it as a weekly event in Erith due to a number of reasons. We feel this gives us a good opportunity to evaluate the lessons learned from the trial period and assess it in light of the feedback received. We will be instigating a temporary break for the market and will be working with key partners to re-launch a market later in the year. I trust the above is if assistance and we will continue to keep you informed. Please get in touch with erith@bexley.gov.uk with any feedback on the market that you would like us to consider". Last Wednesday I walked through the market area and there were four traders with stalls; this Wednesday there were none whatsoever. As several readers have told me in the past, it has been held on the wrong day. The most telling content was from a regular reader called Derek:- "I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only one that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week." Several local people have expressed the opinion that the revamped market had been "set up to fail". I must admit that the evidence would seem to support this view at present. It will be interesting to see what happens in future.

Bexley Council are proceeding with the next phase of the selloff of the family silver. Six open spaces are being offered for sale to the highest bidder. The sites being offered for sale are: - a plot of land adjacent to the railway in Gable Close, Crayford, the piece of land at the junction of Bexley Road and Kempton Close, Erith, the Millfield Open Space in Iron Mill Lane, Crayford, the junction of Napier Road and Wellington road in Belvedere;  the land on Holly Hill Road, Erith and the spit of land that separates Fraser Road and Alford Road in Erith. These are all relatively small parcels of land, some of which would have minimal commercial value. One thing that I do notice when looking at the list is that all of the areas are located once again in the Northern part of the London Borough of Bexley. Not one of the areas to be sold off is located in Bexleyheath, Welling, Sidcup or the other wealthier Southern parts of the Borough. This comes as absolutely no surprise; just as Bexley Council forcibly closed (against massive and very well organised opposition) the Belvedere Splash Park, but did not even consider closing the smaller and less popular one in Danson Park. The reason for this is sad, but pretty simple. Bexley Council concentrate on the South of the borough – the reason is that the Conservative majority council see no votes being either won or lost in the predominantly less wealthy, Labour voting North of the Borough. For this reason all of the unpopular money saving / money generating sell off projects the council undertake happen in the North – as this does not affect their primary electoral base in the wealthier, predominantly Conservative voting South. In essence in their eyes they have little or nothing to lose by ignoring the North of the borough.

More promotion is currently being done to encourage local people to book an appointment for a Smart Meter “upgrade”. These meters are part of the "internet of things". I have noticed that several of the national energy companies are currently targeting local residents with letters asking them to make an appointment to get their current electricity and gas meters replaced with a smart meter. Personally I have received three such letters from my energy supplier, EDF. As I have mentioned before, Smart Meters send real – time power usage data back to the supplier via a 3G mobile phone signal. This means that the meter does not have to be connected to a home data network. This sounds all well and good; the power company can bill you without having to send a meter reader to your house, and you get the option to monitor your power usage in an almost real – time way. There are however, problems. The data sent from the Smart Meter to the supplier is sent unencrypted, and “in the clear”; it is possible to intercept the data stream, and also a malicious attacker can potentially send instructions to the meter remotely. Several Smart Meter companies do tacitly admit this, but they play the whole lack of security aspect down. Secondly if one discounts the security implications, the various energy companies all supply different makes of Smart Meters, many of which are incompatible with each other. If you choose to change your energy supplier at some point in the future, you will need to have your Smart Meter changed again – with the associated additional cost to you that this implies. Tellingly on the EDF letter there are a series of frequently asked questions. EDF initially state in the letter that “your current meter is old and now needs to be replaced – you need to book an appointment for an engineer to carry out this work”. They then go on to stress how old meters can be inaccurate and possibly unsafe. There is a giveaway in the FAQ’s that follow though – and I quote verbatim:- “Occasionally we may be unable to install a Smart Meter, usually due to communications issues with signal strength. If this happens we will not replace your meter, but will contact you again when we believe the Smart Meter national infrastructure will be able to support a Smart Meter in your premises.” There is the smoking gun – they don't actually need to replace the meter for the accuracy and safety concerns expressed earlier – they purely want to do it to make you have a Smart Meter, with all the security, privacy and expense worries that they entail. I have a preferred technique for dealing with such unwanted attention – I ignore everything they send me until they eventually give up and go away. Smart Meters primarily benefit the energy companies, because they no longer need to employ meter readers. The benefits to the consumer are minimal at best, and when allied to the security and compatibility concerns mentioned earlier, they don't add up for me. As always, your mileage may vary.

Work continues on the Crossrail development, with much development continuing on the stretch between Plumstead and the terminus at Abbey Wood. In many ways this is one of the most complex parts of the entire Crossrail project (and before anyone comments “it is called the Elizabeth Line now” – it will only take on the new name when the entire project is completed and officially opened – until then it is still the Crossrail project). The Crossrail project will arguably be more transformational at Abbey Wood than anywhere else along the route. The Elizabeth line will halve journey times to many central London destinations and add twelve trains an hour to the services already provided by the operator Southeastern. The new station will open for Southeastern passengers in December 2017. From December 2018, an Elizabeth line train every five minutes at peak times will allow passengers to travel right through central London to Paddington. From December 2019, when the full route opens, passengers will be able to catch one train right through central London to Heathrow or Reading in the west. When fully open in 2019 it will add ten percent capacity to central London’s rail network, bringing an extra 1.5 million people to within 45 minutes of central London. The Crossrail project is also helping to drive regeneration along the length of the route. It has been projected that new line will support the delivery of over 57,000 new houses. Nearly half of planning applications within a kilometre of an Elizabeth line station has cited the new railway as a justification for the development proceeding, equating to around 5.3 million square feet of residential, commercial and retail space. One quite eye opening example is the journey time from the new Abbey Wood Station to Heathrow Terminal Four (the furthest terminal by train) will be only fifty one minutes. This figure is going to be the cause of much worry to mini cab operators all around the local area; a cab from Abbey Wood to Heathrow costs around £55 and can take up to a couple of hours, depending on the level of traffic congestion. Whilst the fare structure for Crossrail has yet to be published, I think it will be highly unlikely that the fare from Abbey Wood will cost anything like £55, and the journey time will be so much shorter. This is going to prove a real challenge to mini cab companies. I am aware that for many of them, airport trips are their “bread and butter”, as they are far more profitable than short tips to and from pubs or shops. I wonder how many companies will go under once the rail service is fully operational? It seems to me that mini cabs will be mainly confined to running short journeys rather than the profitable long haul journeys of yore with a consequent drop in income. What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo above shows Erith Odeon cinema and the RACS shop adjacent to it, on opposite sides of James Watt Way. The photo was taken in July 1966. In 1936 Coles designed the "Odeon", Erith as an absolutely typical Odeon, with its slim faience-faced advertising tower contrasting with the more horizontally emphasized brick and faience body of the cinema. It opened on 26 February 1938 and seated 1,240 people. The cinema was later used as a bingo hall but was later illegally demolished (it was a Grade 2* listed building) and now a block of flats with offices and the new Erith Library stand in its place. The RACS shop has also long been demolished, and is now the site of a KFC drive through takeaway. The dockside cranes that can be seen in the distance between the buildings are now where the giant Morrison's supermarket is now located. 

Malcolm Knight of “Bexley is Bonkers” reported earlier this week on a meeting of Bexley Transport User’s Sub Committee that took place on the 21st July. An issue was raised at the meeting which struck me as being of particular interest. Malcolm wrote:- “The police reported that they had issued a couple of speeding tickets but “the big issue” for the borough is people riding motorcycles without helmets. “They are very much aware that by not wearing a helmet there is nothing we can do. There is a group of people who will not wear a helmet specifically so that we can't pursue them.” Councillor Brian Beckwith (Conservative, Blackfen and Lamorbey) asked how many hand held speed cameras there were to cover the whole borough. The answer was two. Councillor John Davey (Conservative, Crayford) said the helmetless riders were wearing balaclavas and they were doing “wheelies on the pavement” and “not chasing them was absolutely ludicrous. It sends out completely the wrong message”. The police officer agreed but then dropped back into politically correct mode. Sometimes air support is called in to track the bikers “but it is not always practical. I don’t know what the answer is and I don’t see it changing”. From the research that I have carried out, it would seem that the Police are in a very difficult situation. One quotation I have read from an inside source said “British police very rarely engage in pursuits of any kind and need to get permission before they do engage. Police have a responsibility to protect the wellbeing of both those being pursued as well as the general public. Being pursued by the police frequently causes collisions that can kill or injure those being pursued and/or innocent bystanders. Motorcyclists are at such high risk of injury or death that police would never pursue, a motorcyclist without a helmet is a full scale deflection on the "will this pursuit kill someone" scale”. The problem with this policy is the message that it sends to the offenders and potential offenders – if you don’t wear a helmet (an offence in itself) you will in essence be immune from consequence. The Metropolitan Police have a set of guidelines that state that criminals on motorbikes or scooters that are not wearing crash helmets should only be pursued by Police helicopters. The demands on the helicopter crews are high, as anyone who has watched any of the numerous TV documentary series on Police chases will understand. It costs somewhere between £850 and £1000 per hour to operate a Police helicopter – which is usually considerably more expensive than the resale value of any bike or scooter being ridden illegally. It is a conundrum what to do in situations such as this, though I do feel that the current position of the Police Service actually does nobody any benefit. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

As I have previously written, I am of the opinion that other than for very specific uses (such as exercise and health monitoring) Smart Watches are a solution in need of a problem. Now, for some users a serious health related matter has come up with one fairly popular brand. Intel has recalled every single one of its Basis Peak smartwatches – as well as urging people to stop using them – because they can become dangerously hot. In June, San Francisco-based Basis Sciences – which Intel bought in 2014 – warned that its Peak smartwatches can cause skin burns and blistering, and hoped to issue a firmware update to correct the problem. It turns out that was impossible without stripping out most or all of its features. An Intel spokesperson said "We are issuing this safety recall of the Basis Peak watch because the watch can overheat, which could result in burns or blisters on the skin surface. It is important that you stop using your watch immediately and return it. Although we are stopping support for Basis Peak immediately, you can access your data until December 31, 2016. After that date, the Basis Peak services will be turned off. Once we shut down the services, your watch will no longer be able to sync, which will cause it to stop working". Some commentators have observed that it is entirely possible that Intel just got bored of running a smartwatch cloud service and pulled the plug, using the overheating problem as a convenient stopping point.

A report was published this week, the findings of which surprise me not in the slightest. A new report from its Department of Criminology at the University of Leicester suggests that supermarket self-checkout technology encourages even normally honest shoppers to commit theft. The report found that installing self-service checkouts raises lost revenue by 122 percent. Some of it is accidental – people forget to scan items, or get confused by instructions; other times shoppers get so frustrated with self-service kiosks that they feel justified in not paying. But the report  states that mostly people shoplift because the technology makes it so easy. Mobile phone scanning technology is just as vulnerable – the study found that at the end of a typical shopping trip, up to ten percent of items had not been scanned, leading to “shrinkage” (loss through wastage or theft) of about 3.9 percent of turnover. Unfortunately the technology makes it very difficult to prove that customers are deliberately stealing. One retailer admitted they almost never prosecute people. For that reason supermarkets are now introducing tagging systems so un-scanned items trigger alarms. Supermarkets such as Morrison’s in Erith have now expanded the number of self – service checkouts so that now half of all tills are of this type. Finding an open, traditionally staffed checkouts are becoming a challenge to find.  I have been told that the cost savings in checkout staff wage reductions is more than offset by both the increase in stock theft and the requirement to hire more security guards – who in any case are usually on a higher hourly rate than the checkout staff that they replace. I have always wondered why you have to pay the same price for an item when it is purchased via a self – service till when compared to a traditional one – after all, you are doing work on behalf of the supermarket, and surely this should be reflected in a cheaper cost? Personally I refuse to ever use self-service tills – why have a dog and bark yourself? I would not be at all surprised if the losses incurred via self-service till thefts cause the big supermarkets to re-think their strategy – which at no point is aimed at helping the customer – it is purely about making it as easy for the supermarket to collect money as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

You may have heard that the BBC is going to start enforcing licence fee payment by people watching BBC iPlayer. People who watch BBC programmes only on iPlayer will be required to buy a TV licence to view the content from 1 September. Previously a licence was only needed to watch live broadcasts, so catch-up content was technically exempt from the £145-50 annual fee. But due to a change in the law, a licence will be needed to download or watch BBC programmes on demand. Those who already have a TV licence will not be affected. Personally I have a licence, so will not be affected by this change, but I can foresee a lot of problems in enforcing this new regulation - in fact I think the BBC are making a rod for their own back - but they seem not to have realised this yet. In the "olden days" of analogue televisions with Cathode Ray Tube displays, BBC Detector Vans could patrol the streets - the vans detected the leaked local oscillator from the first stage of the radio receivers that picked up the TV signal. Colour TVs had more receivers to pick up the colour signals, and so could be distinguished from black and white sets. The local oscillators themselves could be quite powerful (as these things go), around about 1mW, so they were easily detected in the street having leaked back through cheap mixers and up the aerial cable. The same thing still applies today for Freeview digital sets. One of the problems I think they'll have with this new technology is that they cannot identify the people using devices. I will explain with the following theoretical scenario:- I have a TV licence, I'm entitled to watch BBC anywhere in the UK, including when I use a public WiFi network such as BT WiFi. I go to a friend's house, who has a BT hub. I use the BT WiFi that their BT hub has switched on by default. That friend has not got a TV licence, and I'm watching BBC at their place but not on their private WiFi that comes from the same BT Hub. However the BBC cannot tell the difference; they are not allowed to examine the network data packet contents, encrypted or not. Effectively they are doing a primitive traffic flow analysis attack on encrypted communications. Only the likes of the NSA and GCHQ have the kind of hardware, software and skilled operators to successfully undertake this kind of work. Another problem - two adjoined houses have their living rooms next to each other. The WiFi routers are in the same corner of the rooms, separated by only a couple of feet and the partition wall. One of the houses has a TV licence, the other one does not. I bet they are unable to direction find the emissions to the accuracy required to tell which of those WiFi routers is in which house. My fear is that the BBC will be too aggressive with prosecutions, and the courts will take an unreasonably optimistic view of the reliability of the technology. The UK courts have not exactly been that clever at sorting scientific fact from pseudo-fact, and there's too many holes in this technique for it to be relied upon as the sole evidence required to jail someone. The Courts have been appallingly willing to accept scientific evidence with low probabilities of correctness as being evidential fact. If an 'expert' states in court that something is fact then the court accepts that, and no amount of dissenting scientific opinion will change their mind. As defence you're not even allowed to challenge the "expert" evidence in court or even discuss probabilities. I feel the new licence conditions will be un - policeable, and unenforceable. 

The ending video this week shows the work that has been going on at London Bridge Station for the last few years. For those who use the station on a regular basis during the construction work, it has been a real pain, but when one sees what has been going on behind the scenes, the transformation and renewal is extremely impressive, and will be even more so when it is all finished in another couple of years from now.  See what you think.