The pier.

The photos above were taken by me on Erith Pier on Friday afternoon - click on either for a larger version. The upper photo shows the general cargo carrier the M.V Elke W, which had just departed the wharf at ADM Oils in Lower Belvedere, and was heading down river on a 24 hour journey to the port of Harlingen in The Netherlands. The lower photo shows the "dog leg" part of Erith Pier; bearing in mind the wonderful weather on Friday, it was surprising that there were not more people there.  Erith Pier is the longest pier on the River Thames, and a wonderful place to be on a warm and sunny day. It is a bit of a pity that Erith Pier os not better known outside of the local area; I feel if properly handled and publicised, it could well become a bit of a tourist attraction. It could do with a public toilet and a small cart selling tea, coffee and soft drinks, to be open during the summer months. I do know that an application was made some years ago by a local couple to open such a cart, but the council turned them down. Perhaps now is the time for a new application? What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Some of the most important and interesting stories that I feature on the Maggot Sandwich are those sent to me by readers; contrary to some opinions, I do not find every story myself. In some cases the people who supply the information prefer to remain anonymous, and I will always respect this; other times the person is happy to be named. Earlier this week I had an Email from a chap called Jerry who told me about a fascinating and very worthwhile project that has recently been set up. A significant breakthrough in cancer research has been made, which uses the processing power of mobile phones to carry out complex calculations distributed over hundreds or thousands of mobile devices. The technology will be used by researchers from Imperial College London hoping to identify how existing and new drugs can be used to treat cancer. The project, Drug Repositioning Using Grids of Smartphones (DRUGS), marks the official launch of the app in the UK and its first collaboration with a UK university. It previously launched in Australia. Star Wars actor John Boyega is among those encouraging the public to get involved by downloading the app and ‘donating’ the processing power of their idle smartphones while they sleep. In an interview with the Metro news website, Dr Kirill Veselkov, who is leading the team at Imperial College London’s department of surgery and cancer, said: "We are currently generating huge volumes of health data around the world every day, but just a fraction of this is being put to use. ‘By harnessing the processing power of thousands of smartphones, we can tap into this invaluable resource and look for clues in the datasets. Ultimately, this could help us to make better use of existing drugs and find more effective combinations of drugs tailored to patients, thereby improving treatments." Scientists from the university have designed an algorithm that breaks down large datasets into small chunks. Through DreamLab, these smaller chunks will be analysed by a network of smartphones to try to find links in the data. This could help identify more effective combinations of existing drugs to treat cancer and work out the best treatment for individuals. While this data processing could be performed by a computer, it would take much longer. A desktop computer with an eight-core processor running 24 hours a day would take 300 years to process the data, the developers said. However, a network of 100,000 smartphones running six hours a night could do the same amount of work in three months. A new device – if fully charged and plugged in – could run up to 60 calculations and solve up to 24,000 problems in six hours. Researchers believe that in the long run this work could speed up access to effective drugs and enable tailored treatments for patients. Andrew Dunnett, Director of The Vodafone Foundation, said: “DreamLab is a great example of the transformative power of connectivity and technology. This innovative app gives everyone the chance to play a part in the fight against cancer while they sleep. We hope DreamLab will significantly increase the speed at which Imperial College and other researchers are able to make breakthroughs in cancer research, ultimately saving lives". Whilst the concept of distributed computing is quite new in the mobile arena, it is not new to desktop computers. I was involved for quite some time with the SETI at Home project, which used a computers processing powers whilst idle to analyse radio signal data gathered from a world - wide network of radio telescopes to look for radio signals possibly of extra terrestrial origin.  The concept is the same, although the methods of operation and delivery vary somewhat. Using idle smart phones to beat cancer has got to be a very good thing indeed. Thanks to Jerry for bringing this story to my attention. 

Regarding submitting stories for inclusion on the Maggot Sandwich, some guidelines; any story needs to be with me by the Thursday night prior to publication on Sunday; this is to allow me to check the factual accuracy of the story, and to edit and reformat the text where necessary. Please send text in plain Email format - not in Microsoft Word, as contrary to popular opinion, Word is not a standard format (a word document contains a lot of hidden metadata that has to be stripped out prior to being uploaded into the Blogger interface). I do occasionally get stories sent to me on a Sunday morning, with a request that it be included in the latest update - which is published early on each Sunday afternoon. Unless there is a really compelling reason, such stories will be carried over to the next edition. Every Maggot Sandwich update takes around ten hours to research, write, edit and error check, all of which is carried out in my spare time. I do not accept advertising or any kind of goods in kind for any promotion - the blog is entirely run as a free local news and information portal with no political or economic bias.

The proposed Energy Park outlined in the picture above - click on it for a larger view - would be located at Norman Road in Belvedere, on land to the west of the existing Riverside Resource Recovery Facility and would form an important part of London’s energy and resource management infrastructure. As well as generating clean energy from energy recovery, anaerobic digestion (for local food and green waste) and solar panels, the proposed Energy Park would also incorporate up to 20 MWh of battery storage to supply additional power to meet London’s demand at peak times.

I am very concerned about the cruise ship terminal that is being created at Enderby Wharf in Greenwich; readers may wonder why my concerns are being directed at a location outside of my normal coverage area, and one that is more properly covered by Darryl Chamberlain of the excellent 853 Blog; well the reasons are actually rather straightforward. As you may already be aware, there is a long established campaign to force the operators of the cruise ship terminal to install shore - side power for the visiting cruise ships, so that they do not have to operate their internal electrical generators to power the vessels whilst in port. The campaigners say that for each cruise ship in port. and running its' generators will create as much pollution as 680 lorries over a 24 hour period. The terminal operators do not want to install shore side power for the cruise ships, due to the additional cost this would create. In an interview in the News Shopper earlier last week, campaigner Laura Eyres said of a cruise ship that docked at the Enderby Wharf port over the recent Bank Holiday weekend that :- "Having campaigned about the plans for a cruise port over the past few months, it was quite a rude awakening to see one of this size parked in Greenwich on the morning of the local election results. The ship ran its engines constantly over the bank holiday and we were horrified to see the amount of smoke it was generating. The smoke blew across to homes, a new children’s playground at New Capital Quay and people just out by the river enjoying the sunshine. Our petition continues to rise steadily with several hundred signatures every week. We noticed a peak in signatures in the period after the bank holiday weekend. We have amassed widespread support not only from residents across the whole borough, but also from MPs on both sides of the river and all the local parties. The cruise terminal was a pivotal issue in the local elections. We have also written to the new leader of Greenwich Council offering our congratulations and asking for a meeting.” The petition currently stand at around 6,500 signatures. One factual error in Laura Eyres makes in her statement is that she confuses the ship running its generators with the ship running its engines - the two things are mutually exclusive. No ship would run its main engines in port, due to the very high cost - their fuel consumption is eye wateringly high. Instead they run shore - side generators, which whilst still using a lot of fuel, are somewhat more efficient than the main engines, especially when all they are going is providing electricity, rather than motive power. I have noticed several journalists making the same mistake. I digress. The problem which this situation creates in the local area covered by the Maggot Sandwich, is that when the cruise liner port at Enderby Wharf is in full operation, a far larger number of cruise liners will be coming up the River Thames and into London, and in so doing will pass Slade Green, Erith, Lower Belvedere and Abbey Wood on their way to Greenwich. Whilst travelling up the river they will not be operating their electrical generators, but running their main motive power engines, with the "full fat" pollution that this will bring - and don't forget that unlike the residents of Greenwich, who are supposed to be benefitting from the increased trade that tourists will bring to the area, residents in the towns that line the banks of the Thames on the route will have all of the pollution and none of the benefits - something that seems to have been overlooked in the whole environmental debate until now. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

There is a change in the Maggot Sandwich this week - although you would not be able to tell; this week the Blog update has been carried out  on a different computer. Normally I use my trusty Apple iMac to create the content for the Blog, but this week I am using my new "backup computer" in the shape of my new Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+ which is now resident in the office in Pewty Acres. The primary role of the Raspberry Pi is to be a very cheap (£35) credit card sized, flexible computer for children to learn programming, much in the way the kids of my generation learned to program the early 8 bit computers of the day such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and the Commodore 64. I was pretty much self taught in computing; when I was at school, computer studies was a very new field, and generally maths teachers were given the job of teaching pupils about computers. Some were excellent, many had little training and less aptitude for the job. At my school, a fair number of pupils knew way more than the computer studies teacher. I recall the time when my friend Roy and I rewrote the CP/M operating system disk on the school’s solitary Research Machines 380Z so that instead of saying on boot up “Research Machines 380Z Basic (C) RM 1979” it said “Washing Machines 380Z Basic (C) Hugh and Roy”. The teacher went ballistic – saying “you’ve broken the computer!” and banning us from the computer room for a month. He could not grasp the fact that we had copied the operating system onto a fresh floppy disc, and only made changes to the copy. This kind of innocent (and sometimes not so innocent) tinkering was a key way we learned how to program and also modify computer hardware. It also helped that this all happened at the beginning of the home computer revolution in 1981/82. The BBC Micro, the Sinclair ZX81, and a little later the ZX Spectrum, and a host of other pioneering machines were making their way into the bedrooms of children all over the UK. Compared with kids in the USA, who had Apple II‘s and IBM PC’s, which at the time had a substantially greater amount of processing clout, us Brits were struggling with computers with very limited resources indeed. Back then almost all kids could program their computers with a varying degree of skill. My own programming abilities were okay – my BASIC programming code was horribly inelegant and messy, but it usually worked – in the end. Since these golden days of the dawn of the home computer age, things have changes in many ways, some for the better, but many for the worse. Until relatively recently, school children have not been taught programming for years; instead computer studies lessons are mainly in how to use Microsoft Office or other proprietary applications. Little consideration has been given to how computers actually work, or how a student can develop their own software. If lucky, they may have learned a bit of simple HTML, but that’s about as far as things went for many years. Now, with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, today's children are able to learn modern programming languages such as Scratch and Python on extremely affordable hardware - hopefully leading to a future generation of programmers and software developers.

I very rarely comment on stories that make the national press; the reason for this is that if it has been covered in the professional press (who are far better equipped than I) then there is little need for me to add anything. Secondly; national stories are really outside of my main remit - that is, to highlight issues affecting residents in and around the Northern wards of the London Borough of Bexley. This week I am making a notable exception; as regular readers will be aware, I have been quite strident in my coverage of moves to restrict the usage of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in high street betting shops. I first wrote of my opposition to FOBT's back in January 2014, which you can read by clicking here. I am glad to say that finally the government have taken what appears to be appropriate action, and are limiting the maximum stake to be gambled to £2 per go from the current £100 stake. Bookmaking company William Hill have announced that the reduction in maximum FOBT stake will impact their annual profits, and they could fall by between £70 and £100 million, and could well lead to betting shops being closed with consequent job losses. To my mind this just shows how much money the gambling organisations make out of some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society. It is no wonder that one can directly correlate the number of betting shops against the most deprived areas of the UK - something that I have covered in detail in the past. Gambling addiction is a specific and savage curse, mostly on the poorest section of the community. There are an estimated 430,000 people who consider themselves addicts, and 2.3 million who admit they are “at risk”. Almost half of those who use the machines admit to being addicted. Some surveys put this proportion as high as 80 percent. I know what will happen - the large gambling corporations will merely offshore their FOBT enterprises - in order to circumvent the changes in the regulations, which at this stage only cover physical gambling machines located in high street shops. All of the big gambling companies have web based presences, usually located in offshore tax havens, and not subject to British law. I would anticipate that they will create new "opportunities" to play web based virtual FOBT machines, thus bypassing legislation changes. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier I referred to "proper" journalist Darryl Chamberlain of the 853 Blog; Darryl has recently covered a story which may well be of interest to Maggot Sandwich readers; if you don't already follow the 853 Blog as I do, I would urge you to do so. Darryl has written a piece on the forthcoming two new Woolwich ferries, which are scheduled to replace the three very old and worn out vessels that currently run the service, and are constantly breaking down - you can see a photo of one of the old vessels above - click on the photo for a larger view. The two new ferries are currently under construction in Poland, and have just been launched. They still require interior fit - out and painting, but they are already completely recognisable. You can read Darryl's article on the forthcoming new Woolwich ferries by clicking here.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly from Barnehurst ward:- "This is our first report in regards to the new Barnehurst ward boundaries and we start with some excellent news with no crimes of note reported. We are slowly getting to know our new patch and have been speaking to residents concerning local concerns as well as taking over ongoing issues from the Colyers team. We would like to thank PC Mo Bangura, PC Mike Cuell and PCSO Muriel Edwards for the work they have done over the years in keeping the ward safe. The new team consists of experienced officers with over 50 years of policing service between them. Our pet hates amongst others are Burglaries, drugs and ASB and we will work tirelessly in combating these using all the available resources at our disposal, including working closely with the local authority and housing associations. However we need your help, Neighbourhood Watch plays an important part in keeping any ward safe and we would like to achieve 100 percent coverage. If you know anyone in the ward that is interested in becoming a Coordinator, please ask them to email the Neighbourhood Watch office at bexwatch-office@btconnect.com to see if their street is covered or feel free to contact the team. We will be actively recruiting new members over the summer months and introducing ourselves to the current Coordinators over the next couple of weeks. Finally a big thank you to the Barnehurst ward Coordinators who remained with us after the boundary changes. We will be at Barnehurst Golf Course on Friday 18th May at 11am. Please feel free to join us for a chat about any local issues that may be of concern or just pop along to say Hi". Belvedere ward:- "Thursday 10th May was the Belvedere ward panel, which was once again well attended with some new faces. The panel met with the 2 newly elected ward Councillors – Sally Hinkley and Dave Putson. The team are keen to work with the councillors to help keep Belvedere safe. The following priorities were set by the panel; 1) Motor-vehicle crime; 2) Drugs; 3) Anti Social Behaviour (ASB). We held another anti-theft number plate screw event on Friday with the AA fitting and giving out 37 sets of anti-theft screws. We utilised the CCTV van, parking it on various hot spots on the ward at the weekend. This turned out to be a huge success, stopping 38 people and obtaining 16 intelligence reports so we shall look to repeat this tactic over coming weeks. We also stopped a van on Dylan Road by Belvedere Train Station that we suspected of fly tipping – all turned out to be in order and documentation was checked. An off road bike which had been pictured and posted on social media by the Thamesmead Team riding in Lesnes Abbey park has been identified and the rider has been issued with a Section 59 warning. The section 59 warning gives officers the powers to seize a vehicle acting in an anti-social manner. The team have issued 7 so far this Spring and will be using this tactic to reduce vehicle ASB. There has been an 83 percent reduction in vehicle ASB calls this year compared to last year so we are confident our approach is working and making the roads and public spaces in Belvedere safer". Bexleyheath ward:- "As you may or may not be aware, all the wards on the Borough had had their ward boundaries changed. Double-check your ward at https://www.met.police.uk/your-area/. As a result we have taken on new streets as well as losing some and are in the process of trying to get to grips with the changes, our team name has also changed and we are now called Bexleyheath SNT. We are hoping to make contact with the Neighbourhood Watches on the new streets that we have taken on to introduce ourselves and to make sure they have the correct details needed to make contact with us. Our team contact number has remained the same, but if you wish to contact us via email, our new one is Bexleyheath.SNT@met.pnn.police.uk. We have been informed the original team mailbox will still be able to receive emails but have no ideal for how long.  In relation to what has been going on the ward. Over the last week, we have had no reported burglaries which is great news for us all. We recently had a meeting with parents and partners from the Council in relation to issues with persistent Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) issues on the ward and we are targeting those who are known to us who persistently cause ASB. We had been informed that the Car Park by the Marriott Hotel was very heavily graffitied. We have attended and can confirm it was as bad as we were told. The team shall be conducting patrols in the car park and are looking into what has been done. We are holding a Bike Marking Event on Saturday 9th June along the Broadway between 10am and 2pm. Please feel free to pop along with your bikes and get them marked, also spread the word to others to also come along and get their bikes property marked. If you would like to contact us, please feel free to make contact via email, twitter or over the phone - details above. For crime prevention advice, please look at the Met Police website which does have information that you may find useful. In an emergency please dial 999 and 101 for non-urgent reporting". Crayford ward:- "First of all, welcome to the residents who are now part of Crayford ward. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook. On 11th May a wallet containing cash cards and driving licence were stolen from Crayford High Street and the cards were fraudulently used to obtain goods. On 12th May a vehicle was interfered with whilst parked in Green Walk. Between 13.00 on 12th May and 10.30 on 13th May there was an attempted burglary at the newly built houses in Crayford Way, a similar offence was committed at the newly built houses in Iron Mill Lane between 5th and 14th May, whereby entry was attempted in to a house and tools were stolen from locked containers. A red Renault Clio was stolen from Wyatt Road between 6pm on Sunday 13th May and 2pm on Monday 14th May. On 10th May between 5.30 and 6pm a Carrera bicycle that was locked to a bike rack outside Sports Direct at Tower Retail Park was stolen. Overnight on 10th May the nearside window to a Mercedes was smashed whilst parked on the road in Claremount Crescent. There have been shop lifting offences at Tower Retail Park. This week officers from our team issued a Section 59 warning to the rider of a moped that had been pulling continuous wheelies in front of a bus, endangering not just himself but the passengers on the bus if the bus had to take avoiding action. Two mobile phone tickets were given out as well as a speeding ticket. Many people were also given words of advice about their driving. Anti-social behaviour has become an increasing issue in quite a few areas around Crayford and has involved several vehicles causing litter by discarding take away packaging and food and drinks as well as nitrous oxide canisters. We are working closely with our partners at London Borough of Bexley to find the best course of action to deal with this as well as other offences that may have been caused. We have been given several number plates of those concerned and will be following this up. Please accept our apologies that our coffee with cops on Wednesday 16th May had to be cancelled at the last moment as the team were urgently required elsewhere. We will be at the Age Concern coffee morning on 25th May at Crayford Library between 11.30-12.30 and will be happy to listen if you have any concerns you would like to speak with us about". Erith ward:- "We have had quite a few Theft of and from Motor vehicles over the last week. Please see the links below for advice. No Residential burglary this week. A few crimes to report from this week: Criminal Damage 09/05/2018 Avenue Road; Theft of cycle 07/05/2018 James Watt Way; Theft of cycle 09/05/2018 Parkspring Court, Erith High Street; Theft from Motor Vehicle 10/05/2018 Riverdale Road; Theft of Motor Vehicle 13/05/2018 Christ Church Vicarage, Victoria Road; Theft of Motor Vehicle 14/05/2018 Erith Road; Shoplifting £200 15/05/2018 Wickes Building Supplies Ltd, Fraser Road". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Good news, we have had no burglaries or motor vehicle crime reported to us over the last week. We are now covering parts of the former Colyers ward and getting to grips with the area. The team are attending St. Fidelis school on Friday afternoon this week for an Aspirations day. The pupils will get to talk to a number of people from different professions to find out what their jobs entail on a daily basis. We have been working on the investigation of two crimes this week .One investigation into the criminal damage of a car windscreen which took place in Collindale Avenue last month, a suspect was identified by police for this and interviewed under caution at the police station. The other investigation, following up from the warrant we executed in Brook Street last week, two further suspects have been interviewed under caution at the police station". Slade Green and North End ward:- "There was a burglary overnight on the 11/12 May in Hazel Drive. An empty property being renovated had power tools stolen. Also overnight on 12/13 May there were 2 vehicle crimes on the Frobisher Road estate. One vehicle had a window smashed and another vehicle was stolen from the estate. During the weekend there were hub caps stolen from a vehicle at the John Pye auction site in Manor Road. A male was arrested by Mark and James last week - he was wanted for failing to attend a drug assessment. He has been charged and awaits an appointment to attend court. Mark and James found a knife in Erith Town centre last week. It is unclear if it was used in any crime but at least it is one more dangerous weapon off the streets. If you were not already aware, the recent ward boundary changes have had very little impact on our ward. We have lost the bottom part of Eversley Avenue and have gained Britannia Close in Erith (which we always thought was ours anyway!). Our ward name has slightly altered also to Slade Green and Northend. This has not affected our team email address with any correspondence to NorthendSNT@met.police.uk still coming through to us. We are not sure if that is due to change in future but we will keep you updated". Thamesmead East ward:- "Burglaries - On Wednesday 09/05/18 between the hours of 07:05pm and 07:30pm on Thursday 10/05/18 a pedal cycle was stolen from the communal area of a block of flats in Fairway Drive.  Motor Vehicle Crimes - Between the hours of 08:30 pm on Saturday 12/05/18 and 02:00 pm on Sunday 13/05/18 a pair of aluminium vehicle ramps were stolen from a vehicle Recovery lorry which was parked in the car parking area of Alsike Road. A motor cycle which had broken down on Eastern Way, which was left locked and secure by the owner was stolen between the hours of 02:00pm Saturday 12/05/18 and 11:00am Sunday 13/05/18 when the owner and a friend returned to the location to recover his bike and found that it had been removed by person(s) unknown. The victim contacted the council to find out if they had removed it but there was no trace. Have a Say event. Thursday 24/05/18 between the hours of 11:00 am and 12:00 pm the team will be attending The Lakeside Medical Centre, Yarnton Way. An opportunity for members of the community who prefer face- to – face contact, to speak with a Dedicated Ward Officer".

The end video this week finishes off pretty much where we started; it is some drone footage taken on and around Erith Pier. It gives a very good idea of just how large the pier is - the longest on the River Thames by quite some margin. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Before and after.

After many false starts, delays and confusion, development work is finally to begin on the old Tram Depot site in Walnut Tree Road, Erith. You can see the brown field site in the photo above - click on it for a larger version. Part of the original depot site was built on a few years ago when Bexley College, (now renamed London South East Colleges: Bexley, which is somewhat of a mouthful at the best of times) was relocated from Tower Road to the new build campus next to Bronze Age Way and Erith Station. The other half of the site was left as wasteland; a plan had been hatched to build a hotel on the brownfield land, but that came to nothing, and the plot has been empty and unused for around the last forty years since the tram depot was demolished. Now a housing development is to be built as part of the planned redevelopment of Erith Town Centre. As previously mentioned, the redevelopment will mean the end of the much disliked underground pedestrian footway that links Erith Station with the town centre - which is better known as "The Tunnel of Doom" by locals. It has always been a magnet for graffiti and anti social behaviour, and I don't think that many locals will mourn its passing. The details of the new residential development are still very sketchy at present, but it is anticipated that it will consist of one or more blocks of flats. The architects for the project are a well known partnership called Ash Sakula, who have a very good reputation for both public and private building design; they have won a total of ten RIBA awards for previous designs. Ash Sakula is currently working on mixed-use projects in Hackney Wick, Southwark, Deptford and Newcastle, a car free development in Banbury, and a leisure scheme in Hangzhou, China. Their studio and office is based in a former 1930s workshop in the heart of London’s jewellery quarter. Cany Ash - Before setting up Ash Sakula in 1994, Cany Ash worked for the GLC Architect’s department and Burrell Foley Fischer as well as in New York and Berlin. She has taught at a number of architectural schools as a critic and studio tutor and is an External Examiner at Cambridge University. She is an experienced co-designer, leading design workshops with young people and many community groups. She has served on the RIBA Awards Group, as a CABE Enabler, a Client Design Advisor and a Civic Trust Awards Assessor. Currently she is member of the South East Design Review Panel. Robert Sakula - Prior to setting up Ash Sakula in 1994, Robert Sakula worked with Clough Williams-Ellis, David Lea, and DEGW. Robert is a Civic Trust Awards Judge, a RIBA Competitions Advisor and a RIBA Awards Jury Chair. He has taught and lectured at many schools in Britain as well as in Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Milan, Portland and Chongqing. He is a member of four design review panels. It would seem that the pedigree of the architects is above reproach; I am hopeful that whatever buildings they design for Erith will be worthy of the area, and not along the lines of the recent tower block built adjacent to Abbey Wood Station. It is too early to determine; I do understand that their preliminary designs will be open to public consultation later in the year, much in the way the development of the old Erith Riverside Swimming Baths site was a couple of years ago, though that development is completely unrelated to this newer one. This new project has been widely reported in the local media; both the Bexley Times and the News Shopper have covered the story, with varying degrees of accuracy. The News Shopper has not exactly covered itself in glory, unfortunately - once again the papers lack of local reporters has shown through. Walnut Tree Road is referred to as "Walnut Street Road" - when even a simple check on Google Maps would have corrected this fundamental error. I do not entirely blame the reporters - they are not locally based, and their knowledge of the area is limited at best. The big giveaway that the News Shopper reporters are remote from the area they write about is that many of the photos used in the paper and on their website are either stock images, or they are taken from Google. I understand that they often ask witnesses to events to submit photographs to the paper, as they no longer have a staff photographer. I fear that the paper is in a downward spiral. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Regular readers will be aware of my opposition to Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) as deployed in betting shops around the country. FOBT's have been described as "The crack cocaine of gambling" due to their extremely addictive nature, and the ability for them to take bets of up to £100 every twenty seconds - meaning that problem gamblers can lose fortunes extremely rapidly. There have been calls for the gambling machines to have strong limitations placed, upon them, or for them to be banned outright. A government consultation which began in October last year has been investigating the effects of FOBT usage on gamblers, and also feedback from the gambling industry, which provides a huge amount of revenue to the government in the form of taxes. The government review of fixed-odds betting terminals, could see the maximum bet reduced to between £2 and £50, with many finding the machines addictive because bets of up to £100 can be played every twenty seconds. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, reportedly in favour of the most severe restriction - a cut to £2, said it believes current regulation is “inappropriate” and that changes to the maximum stake would help reduce “the potentially harmful impact on the player and their wider communities”. The proposals include encouraging the industry to take greater social responsibility. Betting shops are able to have four FOBTs in each outlet but there is concern the machines are clustered in poorer areas where there is more unemployment. Though the government has admitted being unaware of how many problem gamblers are receiving treatment on the NHS, the Gambling Commission warns that more than 2 million people in the UK are either problem gamblers or at risk of addiction. Certainly the number of betting shops in the North of Bexley is a worry. It has been said that FOBT machines are so profitable, they actually subsidise other forms of betting such as on horses or football. I understand that the proliferation of betting shops in the area and elsewhere is due to the legal limitation of only allowing four FOBT machines per shop; the law apparently says nothing about the number of shops allowed in any high street, leaving the decision to cash strapped local councils, who need the business rate income - and who are thus likely to permit additional shops despite the damage these can cause to local communities. Hopefully a change in the law will put a permanent stop to this.

It has been long known that the outer London boroughs of Bexley and Havering are the two least expensive places to buy a house or flat in Greater London. A recent report by estate agency Rightmove has confirmed this; Erith came second in terms of property popularity after Sidcup, which saw the biggest growth in Greater London property prices in the past year, with prices rising 8.3 per cent to an average selling price of £443,000 in January this year. The average asking price for a house in Erith is now said to be £321,000 is almost half of the London average. The average is a bit misleading, however, as most of Erith has house prices which are below three hundred thousand; the figures are skewed by the relatively small number of very high end houses located around Park Crescent, Victoria Road and Avenue Road - the "Beverly Hills" of Erith. There are some absolutely lovely houses in that area, and they do add to the average price in the town by quite a margin. Bexley consistently records positive house price growth, and zone six has seen the biggest rises of 2.3 per cent, compared to zone four which only rose by 0.8 per cent. The forthcoming opening of Crossrail and the Erith Quarry housing development will no doubt increase the attractiveness of the area to potential outside buyers.

The photos above show the "before and after" look of the completed refurbishment of the fascia of the White Hart pub in Erith High Street. The pub fascia has been restored with a replica of the original frontage now in place; the original historic front had been illegally ripped out and replaced by plate glass by the criminal owners of Potion - the cocktail bar / drugs den that you can see in the upper "before" photo, which was housed in the building for a number of years until they lost their licence after repeated Police raids and complaints from the public regarding fights and drug dealing in the place. Now the new owners, The Wellington Pub Company have responsibly carried out the instructions of the Council and recreated as close as to the original Victorian frontage as was possible, which you can see in the lower "after" photo. It is not one hundred percent accurate, but it is very close.  Rumours still abound as to what business will occupy the ground floor, former bar area of the building; previously I had heard that it might become a Gelato shop, then yesterday someone mentioned to me that they had heard that it was to become a Meze Parlour. To be honest, I don't have any reliable information, and at this stage I am merely reporting conjecture. If anyone has some hard information, please let me know.

I can finally say that I told you so - a subject that I wrote in some length about, back in March of 2016, I wrote:- "When Sky launched their original analogue satellite based service back in February 1989, there was no broadband infrastructure in the UK (or anywhere for that matter), as the World Wide Web had yet to be invented by Tim Berners – Lee. Satellites were the only economic method of broadcasting to large areas of the planet. Now the use of satellites for broadcasting is soon to go the way of using hot air balloons for air travel – yes you can still do it, but why would you bother? Fibre optic broadband is the way forward. Mark my words, the age of Sky using hugely expensive satellites to broadcast will soon be at an end; they will either change their operating model and switch to online, or they will slowly die". Well, on Thursday of last week, Sky announced that they plan to make all their channels and content available online, meaning customers will no longer need a satellite dish on their property. Italy will be its first market to get all Sky channels online, followed by Austria, with the UK expected to follow in 2019. The story became one of the most widely read on the BBC News website. You heard it first from the Maggot Sandwich, nearly two years ago.

Now for the weekly safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association; beginning this week with Barnehurst ward:- "Barnehurst Ward has suffered four burglaries in the past week, one of these was a non-dwelling burglary. On 16th January at 09.25pm in Dorothy Evans Close a loud noise was heard by the residents. Suspects fled due to being disturbed by the occupants turning an upstairs light on. A rear window was found smashed and the locking mechanism to a side gate had been broken. Barnehurst Local Policing Team provided the victims with window alarms, personal attack alarms and a TV simulator for added security. On the same date 16th January a burglary took place in Mayplace Road East between the hours of 09.00pm and 10.15. On this occasion the lights were seen on by a neighbour who in turn called Police. Entry was gained through a rear door whereby a wooden panel had been forced. No items were taken from the property. Also on the 16th January a non-dwelling burglary took place in Mayplace Road East very close the burglary mentioned previously. At 07.00pm resident returned home and found the side gate open, on further inspection the victim noticed the shed door open and the padlock removed however nothing was taken. Barnehurst Local Policing Team provided the victim with a shed alarm. On 19th January a burglary took place between 07.50am and 07.55pm in Hall Place Crescent. The resident returned home to find lights on and an untidy search was found within the property. Entry was gained through a ground floor kitchen window, this had been forced open leaving tool marks on the window frame. In the early hours of the 20th January in Sevenoaks Close there was an incident of Arson. A garden bench was found burned out and due to the heat from the flames, damage was caused to the windows of the property. It is unknown how the fire started or how it was put out. Barnehurst Officers have been carrying out plain clothes patrols in an attempt to combat the increase of burglaries on the ward, please be vigilant and ensure door are double locked. If you have porches be aware of what you leave in the porch. Wheelchairs, walking sticks tell burglars this may be the home of someone vulnerable. The team have successfully applied for a warrant under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and will be visiting an address on the ward today with the RSPCA Inspectors and vet. We will update you next week as to what we find and any offences. If you can’t wait til next week to see what’s going on please follow our Twitter and Facebook for updates. A reminder that Coffee with cops will be held at Barnehurst Golf Club on Tuesday 20th February. Feel free to join us for a chat". Belvedere ward:- "This week the team have been making enquires with Bexley Council in relation to CCTV in the Nuxley Road car park as occupants of a nearby property reported anti - social behaviour by youths, with eggs being thrown at houses. We are hoping to visit any person involved in the near future once they are identified. PC Green and PCSO Worrall also visited all primary schools to arrange upcoming talks to pupils and parents on various subjects. There was also a recent attempted burglary in Regent Square – in response to this, the team provided crime prevention tips and literature to resident. During patrols of Clive Road, a group of 4 people were stopped and searched. Subsequently, one person was issued with a cannabis warning and a second was issued with a PND for possession of cannabis. In a separate incident, the team assisted with the arrest of a male for ABH and also have recently conducted a weapons sweep, involving several stops and searches in the Picardy Street area". Brampton ward:- "Brampton team have completed liaising with ward panel members (21st Feb) and almost every NHW coordinators (16th Mar) regarding upcoming meetings this will be completed this weekend . Please send me in your email address and confirmation that you are attending for our records and so we can contact more easily (thanks to those that have already replied) . Both meetings will be at St Peters Church Pickford Lane small hall which is to the side of the large hall, Thanks to rev Jim for the loan of the hall A school talk was completed at St Thomas more , pupils were shown what Police do and what kit we use along with a talk on Stranger danger . Crimes over the week were very low with a residential Burglary in Heversham Road, a rear ground floor window had been forced open , the victim had a jewellery box taken. The team completed a reassurance visit and gave out some security items. 2 x Harassment in Bristow Road, by the same person to the same victim on separate days , investigation ongoing to obtain an Harassment warning . We conducted our first Community Contact Session at St Peters this week , this will be an ongoing feature to the ward .At present we only have the one venue, so if anyone knows of a small hall that we can use for an hour please get in touch. NHW coordinator in Dunwich road has asked the team to give out some security advice to residents in the road , this will be held in their home on February 8th , if anyone else would like us to attend to give a small talk or anything, also please get in touch. We will be attempting to recruit more NHW coordinators in those roads that do not have any over the next few weeks Please follow us on Twitter @MPSBrampton and Facebook : Brampton Police and on the met police website www.met.police.uk , place in your area , put in your road and you will go to the Brampton page". Christchurch ward:- "A vigilant neighbour called the police on Saturday 20 January at approximately 11.45pm. He had observed 2 cars park at the end of Sandford Road, occupants get out and dress with jackets, hoods and balaclavas and set off down Sandford Road. An occupant remained in each car. When the police arrived, they arrested one of the occupants and impounded both cars. The belief is that the arrest was for ‘being equipped’". Colyers ward:- "A busy week for Colyers again with 2 attempted burglaries, 1 aggravated burglary, 2 theft of motor vehicles and 1 theft from motor vehicles. The attempted burglaries were in Barnehurst Avenue on Friday 19th January at around 1am where a male attempted entry via an open ground floor window light but made off when disturbed by the home owner and the other was in Windermere Road on Thursday 18th at around 8pm where a rear window was smashed but entry not gained. On Friday 19th January at around 8-8.30pm in Hornbeam Lane an aggravated burglary took place where 2 armed males smashed the front panel and threatened the occupant in an attempted to steal goods within but made off on realising the next door neighbour had called police. In the early hours of Wednesday 17th January an Orange Duke motorbike was stolen from outside an address in Colyers Lane. Another car was stolen on Monday 22nd January at around 2.30pm in Frinsted Road. Unfortunately the victim had left their car door open and keys in the ignition with the engine running whilst they loaded their car. Please do not leave your car vulnerable in this way. We also had 2 persons stopped for possession of Cannabis, one in Colyers Lane and the other in Bexley Road". Crayford ward:- "Sadly, last week was too good to be true and we have had four burglaries in this last week. Between 22.00 on 17/01/2018 and 06.00 on 18/01/2018 entry was made via the front door of a property in Heath Road. A handbag on the stairs was stolen containing cash, cards and keys. The UVPC locking system was faulty and had not been securely locked, this has now been repaired. The resident there was concerned that the burglar had intended to steal the car keys to steal the car, the bag including cards was found locally. On 20/01/2018 between 17.30-23.55 entry was made via the front door of a property in Crayford Road. All the rooms were searched and English and American currency was stolen. On 19/01/2018 between 17.00-21.00 burglars smashed the glass panel of a door to the rear of a property in Valley Road, an untidy search took place but nothing was stolen, the resident believes that the burglar may have been disturbed. On 20/01/2018 between 20.00-23.00 burglars (captured on nearby CCTV) entered a property in Crayford High Street, by forcing a rear door after smashing a security light. There was an extremely untidy search of the property (furniture overturned, bath panel removed) resulting in a high value of Asian gold being stolen. One thing that all these properties have in common is that there is no Neighbourhood Watch. If you have friends / relatives in these areas perhaps they could be encouraged to establish a watch in their road? A number plate was stolen from a vehicle parked outside an address in Woolbrook Road between 05.00-18.30 on 19/01/2018, it is always best to report a number plate being stolen. On 22/01/2018 at 23.25 a motorcycle was stolen from Tanners Close. On 19/01/2018 between 19.00-22.45 a vehicle was reported stolen from Mayplace Avenue. The vehicle was involved in a fail to stop accident in Crayford town centre that same evening and the vehicle was seized. On 23/01/2018 thieves on mopeds attempted to steal a vehicle parked in Barnes Cray Road, as it had additional security they managed to move it a short distance before abandoning it. A robbery took place in Kennett Road on 23/01/2018 at 19.35. Several males with tools chased after two victims and then stole their vehicle which was located later, the victims were taken to a place of safety by a local business and unfortunately there are no details known about the victims or why this robbery occurred. Our team attended Walker Close on 23/01/2018 as we were made aware that a motorcycle stolen from Midhurst Hill in Bexleyheath on 14/01/2018 was parked and covered up in the car park there. The registered keeper came to collect it, damage amounted to £200 but the gentleman was delighted to get it back. We have visited most of the above victims, completed door to door enquiries and delivered crime prevention advice to the areas close to the burglaries. We have been able to provide more foot patrols for reassurance in the recently affected areas as well as utilising the Pulse Patrol bus for mobile patrols. On Thursday 25/01/2018 we will be holding a crime prevention/drop in for a chat event at the Ellenor shop in Crayford Road between 11.00-13.00, it would be lovely to see you. Our quarterly Ward Panel meeting will be held on Tuesday 30/01/2018 from 19.00 at the Europa Gym, Vimm Way (just off Maiden Lane). If you would like to come along, or know anyone who would like to represent their local community, we would be delighted if you would join us". Erith ward:- "Thank you to all that attended the Erith Ward Panel meeting last week. That was one of our biggest attended. Dates for your diary – Next Ward Panels for 2018 - Thursday 26/04/18, Monday 23/07/18 and Wednesday 17/10/18. At the moment these are all at 7pm Erith Pier Road. Street briefing in Christchurch Avenue. 25 residents attended and we recruited NHW coordinators in the street. Weapon sweep in Compton Place which resulting in a lot of finds you can see images of these on our Twitter @MPSErith. Some Crimes on the ward: Theft of MV (Motor Vehicle) 17/01/2018 Maximfeldt Road; C/Dam (Criminal Damage) 16/01/2018 22:00:00 Compton Place; C/Dam Vehicle 17/01/2018 Car park, St Fidelis Road; Theft from MV 19/01/2018 St Fidelis Road; Shoplift <£200 21/01/2018 Riverside Shopping Centre; Burg Res (Residential Burglary) 21/01/2018 Christchurch Road; Making off 23/01/2018 13:45:00 Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, James Watt Way. Burg Res 23/01/2018 18:00:00 Chandlers Drive; Theft from MV 23/01/2018 Avenue Road". Lesnes Abbey ward:- "Attempted burglary occurred in Harvel Crescent, between the 22/12/17 and 04/01/18, damage to wooden back door and UPVC window. On Friday 19/01/18 between the hours of 3 : 00pm and 11:00pm a burglary occurred in Lensbury Way, no sign of forced entry to the UPVC door. Between Sunday 21/01/18 at 5 :20 pm and Monday 22/01/18 at 01:00 am a burglary occurred in Woolwich Road, entry was gained through the rear garden window which was smashed. Update from recent burglaries - Encouraging turn out regarding a burglary street briefing that took place on Sunday 21st Jan, Woodland Way. Despite the persistent rain approximately fifteen residents attended and voiced their concerns. Excellent work by Bexleyheath Officers where due to joint teamwork, a male has been charged and remanded in custody in relation to two burglaries at Abbots Walk and Woodland Way. While on routine patrol, PC Pruden identified a vehicle abandoned. Checks revealed that the vehicle was stolen by means of a burglary on the 12th January, and was subsequently used in further burglaries in the Bexleyheath area. The vehicle is currently at Charlton car pound where it will be forensically examined. Burglaries which have occurred on Lesnes Abbey, jewellery has been taken. Crime Prevention (Jewellery) - You can help to protect yourself from losing your valuable heirlooms by photographing your jewellery and keep copies of the images somewhere safe - with your insurance documents in case you are unfortunate to suffer a burglary. Make sure the jewellery is included on your insurance forms, in case you ever need to make a claim. Invest in a good quality home safe - consider the value of the items you want to protect when buying a safe. Speak to your bank to see if they provide safety deposit boxes. If anyone has friends or family in the Ward that is interested in being a NW Coordinator, please contact us". North End ward:- "It has been brought to our attention that an email has been received by several residents in our ward claiming to be from the Inland Revenue stating that there is an outstanding tax refund in your name awaiting a claim. It then asks to click the link to make the claim. This email is a SCAM and should be deleted. Please do NOT click the link as it will ask for all of your banking details etc. Please mention to friends and family. You can email us and ask any further questions if you have them. No burglaries this last week which is good. One crime of note was Criminal Damage to Motor vehicle in Howbury Lane last Thursday evening around 9pm. A bit of road rage escalated into an incident and lead to wing mirrors being kicked off the drivers car. Investigations are ongoing to find the suspects. PC’s Mark and James have had a busy week. 6 stop and searches were made in Grange House leading to a cannabis warning and all of the suspects removed from the communal stairwell after recent reports of drug issues inside the block. A stop and search was carried out in Boundary Street, again leading to a cannabis warning for the individual. They also made an arrest for a Domestic ABH, found a stolen motorbike in Lincoln Close which was reunited with the very happy owner, and extra patrols of The Nursery are ongoing after the recent knife point robberies at Erith Food and Wine shop at the location. Added to this they have been out with colleagues from other SNT’s on the patrol bus which included a weapon sweep in Compton Place whereby a Samurai style sword was found in some bushes. Finally, we have a surgery on Monday 29 Jan from 11am at Forest Road café. Hope to see you there for a coffee and a fry up!" Northumberland Heath ward:- "We have had some good results this week. We were conducting proactive plain clothed patrolling in Mill Road, when a disqualified driver pulled up in a car, who we recognised as being wanted for a burglary. We ran over to the male and after a three minute struggle were able to safely detain him. We arrested the male for suspicion of burglary, disqualified driving and possession of cannabis. The vehicle being driven was seized by police and permanently taken off the streets. We have also conducted a number of stop and searches throughout the ward and a further cannabis warning has been issued. We continue to stop and advice youths seen cycling in a careless manner, which is a ward panel priority. This has resulted in a parental home visit on one occasion and several youths having been given words of advice in the streets. On another positive note, having conducted three parental home visits at the start of the year and having delivered letter’s to local residents in Dickens Close and Byron Drive, we are pleased to report we have had no further incidents of anti-social behaviour in this area. Unfortunately in the last week we have had three burglaries on the ward and one garage burglary. The first burglary took place overnight Last Wednesday January 17th in Colindale Avenue. Thankfully the elderly resident was asleep throughout the incident, but is understandably very shaken and distressed by what happened. Tool marks were found on the front door and an untidy search took place, the resident had £55 stolen from her handbag. The second burglary was in Belmont Road on Saturday January 20th at approximately 5.45pm. The occupant returned home and was unable to enter the property by the inner door. He saw several people running down the stairs and they exited by the rear sliding patio door. It is unclear exactly what, if anything was taken at this stage but it is believed the victim may have been targeted for theft of Asian gold. The third burglary was in Nurstead Road and took place between Saturday and Sunday of last weekend. The occupant was away on holiday and the property was being checked daily by a family member who discovered footprints on the hall carpet when entering the property. The rear double glazed UPVC door was forced and the locking mechanism was damaged. The suspect stole an IPad and a Rotary watch. Power tools were stolen from a garage in Winchelsea Avenue on Monday evening this week. The occupant was in the lounge at approximately 9.45pm when she heard a noise coming from the garage. The resident is currently having building work done to the property and the builders put a Yale lock on the garage which had been removed. He tools were over £400 in value. One criminal damage to motor vehicle this week in Sussex Road. On Sunday 21st January the victim was woken up at 01.20 by the sound of a car horn going off. The victim went outside and discovered the offside middle window to her car had been smashed. Nothing was taken but it is believed that an attempt was made to steal the vehicle as plastic casing around the steering wheel was damaged". Thamesmead East ward:- "One burglary to report this week that occurred at Kingfisher Close, on Wednesday 17th January at 1900 hours. Kitchen window smashed, entry gained and expensive watches stolen. As a result the team have been patrolling the location and surrounding streets. A vehicle was stolen from Kale Road, on Thursday 18th January, however it had been notified off road. During the early hours of Monday 22nd January a motor vehicle was broken into (smashed passenger window) and a handbag was stolen. Just after midnight on Tuesday 23rd January, local officers stopped a male who was acting suspicious in Glendale. A search revealed 14 wraps of white powder, which is believed to be cocaine. The male was arrested, enquiries ongoing. The team have been busy over the past couple of days, attempting to recruit new Neighbourhood members by posting leaflets in various streets around the ward. Register your property for FREE and improve your chances of getting it back if it is lost or stolen and help reduce property crime, register at: https://www.immobilise.com . We are always interested in recruiting new Neighbourhood watch co-ordinators for the ward. Please ask your family and friends if they would like to set up a Neighbourhood watch in their road. Please spread the word to any family and friends in the Borough - they can contact us on 020 8721 2049 or Thamesmead.SNT@met.police.uk for more information".

In a very interesting development, Secretary of State for international trade, and president of the board of trade, MP Liam Fox met with Bexley councillors on the 18th of January to discuss the need for the extension of Crossrail from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet. Bexley Council leader, and controversial figure Teresa O'Neill said in an interview with the News Shopper that:- "Given the scale of investment in Crossrail to date, C2E represents a fairly modest investment that can release valuable housing land and connect growth areas along the Thames with fast, reliable metro-style services. It is inconceivable that Bexley and West Kent will not be served by Crossrail services in the way that Essex and Berkshire will be – particularly given the region’s critical role as the country’s gateway to Europe". The Councillor makes one assumption in her opinion regarding an extension to Crossrail from Abbey Wood, down into rural Kent, and that is that the former London Paramount Theme Park development will still go ahead, despite Paramount having pulled out of the deal last year, and to date no new intellectual property partner being appointed. One of the primary justifications of any Crossrail extension into Kent was to provide a fast rail link to and from the proposed theme park and into London. Now that the whole project is in some doubt, the same must be said of the proposed rail extension. Secondly, Teresa O'Neill says that the rail extension is vital given Kent's role s the gateway into Europe. This may well be true, but there are doubts as to how that may or may not change once Britain leaves the EU - nobody knows for sure, as this kind of thing has never happened before. I think that Teresa O'Neill is confusing what she would like to happen with what actually may happen - in my opinion the whole situation is in such doubt and flux that it is impossible to make any accurate prediction at this point. I know that many of the proposals outlined in the Bexley Growth Strategy document rely on the assumption that the extension of Crossrail from Abbey Wood to Ebbsfleet will go ahead. I have always said that this was the single biggest flaw in the strategy document, amongst many smaller ones. Time will no doubt tell. Who says that I don't plan these things? The end video this week explains how the Crossrail system will open, and it is not as straightforward as you might think; not only is the whole new railway going to be renamed as The Elizabeth Line when it opens, but the opening is being done in phases over the course of a year - not as many had assumed all at once. The video below explains exactly what will happen, and when. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Erith Lighthouse closes.

The photo above shows a rather unusual view of the ADM Oils Thames - side edible oil refinery, along with a moored bulk freighter, which was offloading a cargo of oilseed rape seed for processing into vegetable oil and soft spread. ADM Oils is the largest producer of edible oils and vegetable fats in Europe, and one of the largest in the World.  The ADM Oils facility is located at the end of Church Manor Way, as you can see by clicking here. Answers on a postcard please - where was the photo above taken from? Prize is an air guitar last played at the 1988 Donnington Monsters of Rock festival, and has not been played since, so it is probably a bit out of tune by now. 

Fellow local Blogger, Darryl Chamberlain of the 853 Blog has done something very ambitious and quite daring; he's crowd funding the 853 Blog so that, with enough funding, he will be able to make his online journalism a full time career. Unlike myself, an amateur who writes the Maggot Sandwich as an unpaid hobby, albeit one that takes up a large amount of my free time, Darryl is a "proper" trained journalist who has worked for The Guardian and the BBC News website. Darryl has set up a Patreon account that you can see here. He's hoping to be able to earn enough money through donations and sponsorship to pay for him to work on the 853 news and current affairs blog full time. he writes:- "I started looking more closely at issues involving Greenwich Council because they weren't receiving much coverage in the local press. Now the situation's even worse. The Mercury, traditionally the Greenwich borough's campaigning paper, is a pale shadow of its former self while the News Shopper is in tatters thanks to its owners squeezing it for every last penny of profit. And a new entrant, Greenwich Weekender, has stopped covering news after being threatened by Greenwich Council with the loss of an advertising contract for the crime of publishing some dissenting views on what councillors are up to. I'd like to be able to keep producing 853, to keep telling stories that aren't being told and to dig deeper into issues that affect the area. Over 700 people subscribe to the site - if every one of those paid £3 per month, it'd become a full-time wage. I'm not expecting anything near that, but the more people are able to pay, the more I can do. Hopefully I can live up to the generosity of those who have already donated - all contributions are gratefully accepted, and let's help keep public interest journalism alive in south-east London". Darryl plans on covering the stories that the local papers can't, or won't cover in the Charlton, Greenwich and Lewisham areas - the area covered by the old British Telecom 853 dialling code, hence the name of Darryl's Blog. I am proud to say that I am one of Darryl's sponsors, and if you would like to become one as well, you can click here for more information. 

I know that many readers will be pleased by the news that as of last Monday, trains on the Bexleyheath, Greenwich and Sidcup rail lines will have their number of carriages increased. Those that previously have had six cars will be increased to eight, and those that have had eight cars will be increased to ten. Southeastern expects to create 5,000 additional seat for morning-peak commuters to London by adding the carriages. Ten is the maximum length of train that can be used on the Greenwich line; although most stations on the line were extended to accommodate twelve carriage trains, shortly before the 2012 Olympics, two factors prevented trains regularly employing twelve carriages. The first of these is insufficient traction current to run very many long trains, but the most significant factor is the restricted length of the platform at Woolwich Dockyard Station. It is the only station on the Greenwich line which is constrained by a tunnel at each end of the platform. The maximum length of train that can stop there is ten cars; unlike on the Docklands Light Railway, where certain stations can be shorter than the trains that visit them - Island Gardens being an example - the overland trains are not able to lock out the doors of the carriages still in the tunnel - this is known as Selective Door Operation. The only time twelve carriage trains operated on the Greenwich Line was during the 2012 Olympics and 2012 Paralympics; the work - around was that trains in either direction did not stop at Woolwich Dockyard Station  - thus avoiding the problems of the doors of the front and rear coaches potentially opening whilst still being in the tunnel. Some wags also suggested the motivation was that the Olympic organisers did not want visitors to the UK accidentally getting off the train at Woolwich Dockyard, and then finding out what a dump the area then was! There have been substantial improvements since 2012. In any case the issue is moot; the trains on the Greenwich line will be longer, but the limit will still be ten car trains. 

This weekend has marked the successful conclusion of the Pier Commission and the Erith Lighthouse Project, which I have covered in detail over the past weeks. The pioneering art installation, community interactivity events and the pop - up restaurant which took place initially in Erith Riverside Gardens, and subsequently on Erith Pier have attracted much attention, and not only from local residents - people from farther afield have been attracted to Erith, in many cases for the first time. Sarah Batten, one of the Directors of arts commissioning group The Exchange writes:- " Back in March 2017, we approached Orbit and Wates Residential with an outline idea of sponsoring a contemporary arts project based on Erith Pier, with a view to drawing attention to it, and redefining or enhancing its purpose as a public space. With the sponsors the idea for ‘The Pier Commission’ – an annual arts project that would support emerging artists and contribute to community life in Erith – developed. An open call out resulted in over 70 proposals from all over the world, each reimagining the space in different ways – some bonkers, some magical, some impressive. The judging panel – consisting of The Exchange, Orbit, Wates Residential, local artists Gary Drostle and Guy Tarrant, Totally Thames and The Decorators (the group responsible for the Erith Lighthouse project) – had a difficult challenge to whittle this long list down to a shortlist of four, which were then presented to the public for the final vote. Julia Snowdin’s proposal was by far the most popular with local and wider audiences. Snowdin’s artwork, which has hung on Erith Pier for the last few weeks, has had overwhelming support from the public. From the fishermen who shelter under the sails, to the people who live in the flats opposite who watch them lit up in the evening, to the 65 people who contributed to the designing of the work (the youngest was 4 months old, the oldest 92!), to the children from local schools who made paper boats and helped us to imagine a new creative future for the town. In total over 3,000 people visited the pier over the course of the installation. We would like to thank the Port of London Authority, Morrisons and in particular Orbit, Wates Residential and Bexley Council - without their support this project would not have happened. There were of course challenges, and things that we would do differently in the future. The principal thing would be to allow ourselves more time to develop the project, and give the artist more time and resource to develop their work in close collaboration with the Erith community. We want also to explore how the programme could be extended, to other sites in Erith, and by reaching out to different groups developing close and meaningful partnerships. Probably the best thing about The Pier Commission, and the Erith Lighthouse project, has been the conversations we have been able to have with Erith residents of all ages, groups and persuasions. There is some sadness about what has happened in Erith in the past, but this is coupled with incredible positivity about the future of the town. It is this positivity, and the community spirit that we have witnessed, that will make the success of any future projects – we look forward to being a part of it." 

  

Recently I wrote at some length about the problems with Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) in betting shops on our high streets. Whilst I highlighted the problems these present to people on low incomes, and to those who have problems with gambling, one area that I neglected is that surrounding organised crime, and how crooks use FOBT’s as part of their own business model, astonishing as that might seem. The Gambling Commission - the industry regulator also publicly admitted what has long been privately acknowledged: FOBTs present a "high inherent money-laundering risk". In a letter to the industry trade association, the commission warned about "a retail betting model that includes high volumes of cash transactions, particularly where this includes low individual spend and a high level of anonymity, especially where that model also offers (FOBTs). What the machines provide is the chance for criminals to quickly and easily convert large sums of money from the real world into virtual cash that can later be converted back into the real thing. There is little official research into the scale and extent of such operations. The 2005 Gambling Act, which regulates the terminals, says one of its primary objectives is "preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime". It has long been obvious to the public that criminals can convert their loot into a clean win on an electronic roulette table. Surveys for the commission show that 40 percent of the public regularly identify gambling with criminal activity. The industry regulator found one in 14 respondents associated money laundering with gambling. Dealers feed their drug money through the machines, losing a little and then cashing out with the vast majority of their stake. They can then collect a printed ticket from the bookmaker showing they have gambled that day – meaning that if stopped by police, they can answer questions about why an apparently unemployed young man carries hundreds of pounds in rolled-up cash. The Fixed Odds Betting Terminals arrived in Britain back in 2001, and were lightly regulated from the outset. Gamblers in bookmakers found that they could bet £100 every 20 seconds on roulette. The temptation of high-speed, high-stake casino games in the high street proved irresistible: there are now over 33,345 FOBTs in the UK. The drug dealer who wants to launder his pile if ill – gotten cash has a very straightforward strategy, which is embarrassingly simple – they bet : £20 on black, £20 on red and £2 on zero. A press of a button and the wheel spins before the ball lands on red. That's a loss of £2. The money placed on the zero is the only risk the drug dealer is taking with his cash. If the ball does land on zero, he wins £72. With no horses to run or dealer to shuffle and just the 20 second spin of an electronic roulette wheel to wait for, it takes a little over a minute for the drug dealer to cash out. Many experienced money launderers know that unless they gamble at least 40 percent of the float money they have put in the machine, an alert will pop up on the staff computer warning them of suspicious activity. So they methodically place the same bet to make sure that they have been seen to have wagered enough. The economics of drug dealing make it cost-effective to pay 5 percent to 10 percent to betting shops to launder the illicit profits. I have it on good authority that it not just proceeds of illegal  drug sales that are being laundered through the FOBT machines, but that of robberies as well; Did you know that security dyed bank notes from bank robberies can be submitted to The Bank of England and the book maker company gets reimbursed? This whole process seems to have been overlooked by the Police.

Following my article last week concerning the MBNA Thames Clipper service running experimental ferry trips from Gravesend Town Pier to London, it would seem that Bexley Council are now putting out a somewhat different line to their original rather dismissive press statement that they had no knowledge of the trial ferry service expansion, or any reference to the ferry company having aspirations to run from Erith Pier; now they are back pedalling somewhat. In a follow up statement to the one I reported last week, a spokesperson for Bexley Council has since been quoted as saying:- "We would welcome a clipper type service if it offers another option for people travelling to and from the City and central London. We don’t own the pier and, while we understand it does not currently have the facilities to allow vessels to dock, we would hope they can be provided if the service is extended along the Thames. We support greater use of the river, particularly for leisure and tourism, and we await the results of this week’s trial with interest.” Sean Collins, CEO and co-founder, MBNA Thames Clippers said in a News Shopper interview that:- “Our Gravesend trial service was a complete success. Bookings completely sold out, and we have had incredibly positive feedback from passengers, many asking us when it will become a permanent extension to our current network. The purpose of the trial sailings was to provide us with the required information to enable us to evaluate the potential of such services for the future. The infrastructure and vessels required to operate such service would need to be built, as well as evaluating other potential stops for the route to support the routes viability.”  It was also announced last week that The company behind the long-promised theme park to be constructed in Swanscombe has reached an agreement to ferry tourists to the resort. London Resort Company Holdings hope the agreement with MBNA Thames Clippers will carry about ten per cent of visitors to the theme park from central London into Kent to visit the proposed resort. It is planned that the clippers will link the resort with Tilbury and Grays in Essex, and potentially Erith Pier, as well as to central London. Sean Collins also said:- “We want to transport as many visitors to the London Resort as possible to realise the huge benefits in terms of speed, comfort and frequency of travelling by river. Having recently agreed to run free test trials from Gravesend to offer journeys direct to central London in cooperation with Gravesham Council and seen overwhelming interest, we are delighted to play a crucial role in one of the biggest Global Entertainment Resort projects in the world, where the commuter and leisure market can be served by a first class ferry service.” It would seem that the momentum to get a ferry service running along an extended River Thames route is increasing; if the theme park does actually go ahead - it has been delayed several times - mainly due to the departure of Paramount and all of their intellectual property from the deal some time ago, then improved communications to the Swanscombe Peninsula site will be imperative. As mentioned last week, there are considerable barriers to setting up a MBNA ferry terminal on Erith Pier; the problems can be divided into two specific types. Firstly there are the engineering and physical challenges to enabling a ferry to dock at the pier. A free floating pontoon extension to the existing pier structure would be needed; this would project out into the deep water channel closer to the middle of the river. This would, however create problems of its own. Whilst the floating pontoon would enable ferries to dock at the the pier whatever the state of the tide was, it would also create a hazard to other shipping that uses the river. Commercial vessels, including cargo ships and bulk freighters, such as vessels like that featured in the photo above - click on it for a larger version - use the deep water channel, and if a jetty was protruding into the channel, this might create a hazard to navigation, especially at night and at times of reduced visibility. There are several ways to manage this, the most obvious one being to make the floating jetty movable - to swing it out into the deep water channel only when a ferry was approaching the pier. Unfortunately this would add complexity, and therefore cost to the design, and for safety reasons would almost certainly require a supervising operator to be located on site. The jetty, whether movable or fixed, would require hazard warning lights, a fog horn, and a radar reflector. The pier itself would also require some shelters for waiting commuters to occupy in inclement weather - the wind coming off the Thames at Erith in winter can be absolutely bitter, not to mention the freezing rain. Who would foot the bill for all of the alterations and upgrades is uncertain - at this point it has not been debated. The second barrier to using Erith Pier as a landing place for MBNA Clipper Ferries is actually by far the more difficult one - the bureaucracy and vested interests of the likes of The Port of London Authority, Morrison's Supermarket (who own the pier) and Bexley Council. I know from personal experience that dealing with these organisations, when any mention of Erith Pier is made, it tends to provoke the response of "The answer is no, now what is the question?" Long term readers may recall that I had a small involvement some years ago with an abortive project to bring the Ross Revenge - the Radio Caroline ship to Erith Pier to open it as a public attraction for the Summer season. The objections and bureaucratic barriers that were put up to block the temporary project were simply staggering, and even the involvement of Teresa Pearce, MP for Erith and Thamesmead was not enough to get the project the green light, and it ended up being abandoned. The transformation of Erith Pier into a ferry terminal is of a completely different scale, as it would require permanent changes to the pier structure and thus its functionality, which has since it was refurbished and repurposed in 1999 been exclusively for leisure use. If London Mayor Sadiq Khan does put his weight behind the project, I can see it getting enough momentum to actually come to fruition, but to be honest, I still am of the opinion that it is unlikely to happen. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

This week’s incident reports from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association; firstly from Belvedere ward:- “This week, we have managed to identify further children / youths that have been involved in anti-social behaviour both in and around the car park in Nuxley Road. We will be making efforts to visit those we are aware of in order to speak with the subjects and their parents, to advise against the type of behaviour that has been taking place. We are hopeful that this action will have the desired effect. PC Holmes has been busy dealing with various CCTV enquiries on the ward, most of which originate from shoplifting offences taking place in both Upper and Lower Belvedere. Images of those believed to be involved are being circulated on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, in the hope that they can be identified. The team have very recently dealt with a female shoplifter from B and Q in Lower Belvedere who is being interviewed in relation to the offence in the very near future.” Brampton ward:- “There have been 6 crimes over the past week. 1 x computer risk to human welfare in Cyril Road 1 x Criminal damage to a motor vehicle in Birchington Close, victim has seen a puncture mark in their tyre that has gone flat , NHW coordinator spoken to regarding the incident which is an ongoing problem in the road. 1 x Attempted theft of a cycle outside The Bakery Pickford Lane, the victim was riding home on the pavement when the suspect attempted to stop the victim who then fell off the bike, members of the public attempted to stop the suspect leaving the scene, it is unknown if the offence was an attempted theft or something else. 1 x Theft shoplifting in Long Lane, suspect stole washing powder 1 x Possession of cannabis in Albury Avenue, suspect stopped whilst walking along smoking 1 x Burglary Shakespeare Avenue , suspect smashed rear kitchen window and gained access.” Colyers ward:- “There are no reported burglaries on Colyers Ward between 13/09/17 to 19/09/17. There was one reported theft of motor vehicle and one criminal damage to motor vehicle during the same period. On 16th September 2017 the victim parked his vehicle outside his house address in Elmstead Road Erith at 7pm. The vehicle was locked and secured. At about 9pm when the victim came out, he discovered that his vehicle was gone. No suspect was seen but there is possible CCTV. On Monday 12th September 2017 in Larner Road the victim had her vehicle damaged by a male on a motor bike, VRM R251XBW(?) in Larner Road, Erith. The victim indicated that the male riding the motor bike came close to her on the driver’s side and punched her wing mirror and damaged it. She had no clue why it happened and she was very shaken by the experience. The victim managed to get a picture of the VRM of the motorbike on her phone.” Crayford ward:- “Two mobile phones were stolen, one from McDonalds and one from Sainsbury's. Each victim recalls having their phones at these locations. Counterfeit notes have also been reported as being used in a Crayford shop. There have been three bicycles stolen and two mopeds stolen in this last week. The mopeds have both been located nearby. With the assistance of officers from Christchurch and Barnehurst SNT, our team completed a successful Section 23 Drugs warrant at an address close to Crayford Way. Several items were seized and enquiries will be ongoing that should lead to prosecution of offenders.” North End ward:- “2 motor vehicle crimes in the last week, 1 vehicle damaged by 3 guys on mopeds kicking the wing mirror as they rode past in Bridge Road. Please let us know any descriptions or number plates if you see any groups of motorbikes and mopeds riding around. All information we get is being used to build an intelligence plan in to trying to identify anyone involved so a red coat, orange bike etc, any of this information could prove useful in future. The other vehicle crime was a theft of number plates in Frobisher Road, no trace of the plates as yet.” Northumberland Heath ward:- “This week we have had no residential burglaries reported on the ward however an attempted burglary took place on Monday September 18th at the Natwest bank which closed earlier this year. Entry to the premises was not gained but a window was smashed and the entry door was damaged. The suspect has been arrested. Theft of a Lefan motorbike in Streamway on Thursday September 14th between 0800 – 1530 hours. The bike was stolen from the front of the property. Criminal damage to a white transit van parked in Eastry Road this week. An attempt was made to access the vehicle and tool marks and scratches were discovered around the lock. Also a theft of a box containing personal effects from a vehicle parked in Bexley Road Between Saturday September 16th 0800 and Monday 18th at 08:00. The box contained receipts, bills and other paperwork. Please be vigilant and make sure all personal belongings are out of sight where possible. An apple iPhone was stolen from a male walking in Brook Street on Wednesday September 13th at 12:45pm. The suspects made off in a Black Vauxhall Corsa. A handbag containing cash, credit cards and other belongings was stolen from an elderly lady in Bexley Road on Thursday September 14th at 10:30am. The suspects made off on a moped. The lady was unharmed but sustained wrist pain following the incident.” Thamesmead East ward:- “Good news, no Burglary / vehicle crime reported on the ward during the past week. The team attended the Southmere Park summer fete over the weekend, good fun was had by all. A spectacular firework display over the lake ended the day’s events on Saturday evening. Four youths were stopped by PCSO Buckley and Hobbs on Saturday evening after reports of Anti-Social Behaviour around the Staplehurst Court car park, Southmere Drive. Good Intelligence gained. It’s Operation Sceptre this week. The team have / will be conducting weapon sweeps on the ward and making residents aware in an attempt to reduce knife crime across the whole of the MPS.”

The ending video this week is courtesy of Reverend Simon Archer of Christ Church Erith. He's appealing for more donations to Erith Food Bank, as you can see from the short video below. Do donate what you can; it is an extremely worthy cause.