Post Office for sale.

The upper photo above shows the building and conversion work being carried out on the White Hart Pub in Erith High Street. The lower picture shows the low rise flats that will shortly be constructed in the former pub's garden behind the main building pictured in the upper photo. The building was left empty and unused after  the last occupants abandoned the property. It had been used as a wine bar / drug den by a couple of unscrupulous businessmen / criminals who illegally ripped out the historic Victorian acid etched glass and salt glazed tile frontage and installed hideous plate glass windows. The wine bar, which was called Potion, attracted all of the worst elements from the local area, and it soon became known as a hive of scum and villainy. The place was not properly run, and there were many incidents of drunken and drug fuelled fights taking place on the premises. Eventually the owners lost their licence, and they were also twice taken to court by Bexley Council over the illegal changes that they had made to the pub building, which is part of the Erith High Street Conservation Area. Needless to say they did not turn up at court, and claimed bankruptcy to save them from paying the extensive fines and restoration fees that the court subsequently imposed. Now the historic frontage has been replaced with a very nice looking and quite accurate replica of the original, and the building is being converted into apartments upstairs and to the rear of the bar area. The work is being funded by The Wellington Pub Company, the largest free of tie pub company in the UK, who specialise in resuscitating and renovating "problem" sites. It will be interesting to see if they do open a pub in the ground floor of the White Hart building, as the only other pub in central Erith is the dreary and under - used Running Horses, a pub / restaurant that was absolutely excellent in the late 80's / early 90's, with an extremely popular carvery in the upper floor of the pub building, but nowadays it is a sad shadow of its former self, which is a great pity. There have been many rumours about the potential future use of the bar area of the White Hart, as it is the only part of the building not covered in the extensive documentation that accompanied the planning application supplied to Bexley Council. Much guesswork and several rumours have abounded - that it was going to be an Indian restaurant, or a Gelato parlour, but thus far nothing concrete has yet been determined. 

Following up last week's story on the criminal moped rider who was hospitalised following a Police action called a "tactical stop", I have it on very good authority that the criminal who was detained has a long criminal record, both as a prolific moped thief, a drug dealer of some local repute, and the person who recently stole a bike from a member of the Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association management team. I get the strong feeling that the youth in question will be made an example of when the case reaches court. More news regarding the illegal motorbike and moped riders that plague the area; A reader who chooses to remain anonymous wrote to me recently, saying:- "Congratulations for highlighting the connection between illegal motorcycles and other crime. I support the police robust stop tactics. Any refusal to stop should be grounds for immediate confiscation of the motorcycle  without any  warning for the future at all. I can think of a few locations where a pursuit is not even necessary. Two bobbies posted with stingers deployed at the destroyed "kissing gates" into and out of Thamesmead former golf club would bottle up the regular motorcycle gang without the need for a helicopter blockade or active stop tactics by the police. Eventually they would be obliged to give themselves up. If you wonder about the relevance to Erith of this location then I invite you to inspect the recently installed barrier gate on the river path beside the Crossness Engines Trust. You will see that the ironwork beside the barrier has been destroyed  by cutting with angle grinders just like the adjacent "kissing gate". The River path is now being invaded by these illegal motorcycles rendering it practically useless for leisure purposes. Probably those same low-lifes  displaced by the recent Police action in Norman Road North beside Cory Environmental that you reported in a recent blog". I know that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick stated only last week that the teenage thugs undertaking moped based crime need to have longer prison sentences. In an interview with the London Evening Standard, Commissioner Dick said:- "Years of trying to keep young offenders out of jail has resulted in an increasing number who are simply not fearful of how the state will respond to their actions. They don't see imprisonment as particularly likely or a serious threat and it does not in any sense deter them from criminal activity. At what point does the state prioritise its duty to protect the public and ensure that young people could see the criminal justice system as something that will catch up with them?" Commissioner Dick also reported the case of a 16-year-old in London who had 42 offences to his name, but had not served a single day in jail. Last year 26,236 criminals under 18 were reportedly sentenced by UK courts but just 1,598 – around one in 16 – were locked up. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

As I have previously covered, the quality of local journalism is going downhill; this is not the direct fault of the reporters on our main "local" paper - their numbers have been drastically reduced, and the areas they cover have been greatly increased. The News Shopper offices used to be based in Petts Wood, and the reporters were truly local; nowadays the News Shopper's parent company, Newsquest is based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The reporters that cover the London Borough of Bexley also have to cover such geographically diverse areas such as Richmond, Croydon and also South East London / North Kent. Bearing in mind the News Shopper only has s tiny handful of reporters nowadays, and those they do have are sometimes painfully unfamiliar with the area on which they are reporting; it is not surprising that they get things wrong from time to time, as has happened in the last week, where reporter Tom Bell wrote a story about a lady who had been mugged in Erith Road, Upper Belvedere - the piece is entitled "Strangers fundraise to replace pension of Nuxley woman, 84, robbed in street" - since when has there been a place / town called Nuxley? He is of course referring to Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere, although you would never know from his article. I don't entirely blame him - he has probably never visited the place. I decided that I would write to Mr. Bell and give him some history of Nuxley Road, and why "Nuxley" and "Nuxley Village" have never actually existed. Here is what I wrote:- "Hi Tom, I hope you don't mind, but I need to correct you on your recent story entitled:- "Nuxley robbery: Grandmother has pension stolen by a 'monster'". A lot of people, some long – time local residents included, call Nuxley Road in Upper Belvedere “Nuxley Village” – even though no such place has ever existed since the beginning of recorded time. The origin of the names of the  places in the local area, and some of the surrounding landmarks dates back to the early fifteenth century, and the name Belvedere even earlier. The area of Bedonwell gets its name from the Bedon stream, which runs through what is now known as Streamway; the Bedon is a minor tributary of the River Thames, which is now run through an underground drain for much of its length. A fifteenth century form of the name was Beton Well, meaning “praying well”. The exact origin is lost in the mists of time, though the old English word “bydan” meaning a shallow valley may have something to do with it. On the South side of the stream was a further area of open heath land, called Nuxley or Little Heath, which occupied an area around what was later Bedonwell Primary School (and is now a Doctor’s surgery and private flats). The name Nuxley was sometimes spelled Naxley, which in turn is a corruption of Knocksley, meaning a small hill. Nuxley Road was originally named Bexley Road, until March 1939 when it was renamed as Nuxley Road, which it remains to date. There is no record of Upper Belvedere ever having been named Nuxley Village, and parish records for the area date back to 1235 AD, and survived the reformation, when ownership of the parish was transferred from Lesnes Abbey to the owners of Parsonage Farm (on what is now Parsonage Manor Way). During the late 19th century, Parsonage Farm was owned by the Vinson family, who were at the time rich and powerful enough to issue their own trade tokens (a kind of informal local currency). There are records that beer houses such as the Fox, and full pubs such as the Eardley Arms took trade tokens for payment for food and drink until sometime around 1900. The farm buildings, which were  constructed in the Middle Ages (principally to provide food and drink for Abbot and Monks at Lesnes Abbey) lasted until the end of WWII, when it was used to house an auxiliary fire station. After the war the building was so derelict it was demolished. Thus, the name “Nuxley Village” is a construct – a fictional creation of local estate agents who have no knowledge of the history of the area. Upper Belvedere has been so called for at least the last 782 years, and the thoughtless action of a handful of ignorant house peddlers is not going to change facts any time soon. I hope that this clarifies". I currently await a reply. 

Bexley Council appear to be up to a few tricks right now. There was a full council meeting on the 8th of November. The majority Conservative council were challenged over their spending. After a couple of years of cutbacks and austerity, it appears that they are now on a spending spree. Why would this be? The money situation has not as far as I can ascertain improved to any significant degree. In a series of questions asked at the council meeting of the ruling Conservative group, Councillor Alex Sawyer was forced to admit that spending on resurfacing on roads and pavements has seen a one-off sharp increase in spending in election year. The Conservative group also refused to admit that the focus of their pre-election spending will be across Conservative wards in areas such as road resurfacing and street planting with 210 of the 225 trees planned for planting in this year, planned in the 16 of the 21 wards represented by the Conservatives. Speaking in an interview after the council meeting, Councillor Joe Ferreira, Shadow Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Environment and Leisure said “It is now clear that Bexley’s Conservatives are using the underspends from the 2016/17 budget to fund a pre-election programme of tidying up the borough focusing on areas represented by Conservative councillors. In a number of areas, they are attempting to re-invest services to 2014 levels, showing they now accept that their programme of cuts to street cleansing and parks have failed, albeit with an acceptance that this spending cannot be guaranteed to continue after the election. The Tories are desperately trying to use our residents’ money to fund their pre-election campaign and are reversing their entire budget policy in an attempt to retain control of the council.” If this is all as has been claimed (and at the time of writing, I have no reason to suspect that it is not), then this will be yet another example of the Northern wards of The London Borough of Bexley suffering at the expense of the wealthier Southern wards. We are currently in the unenviable position of having a local council that can safely ignore the wishes of a significant proportion of its residents in the North, as their mandate is supplied almost exclusively by the residents in the South. This seems to me to be contrary to the principles of good democracy and government.

Back when flat screen televisions were first made available, they had a finite life. The early plasma screens were normally good for around 30,000 hours of service, the problem was that whilst the screens were bright and had a very good viewing angle, they used a lot of power, even when in standby, and when on they got very hot. When LED screens came along, their life was substantially longer, and again the limiting factor was the life of the backlight – a common issue. The latest screen technology currently available is OLED. An OLED display works without a backlight; thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than an LED screen. In low ambient light conditions (such as a dark room), an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LED, regardless of whether the LED uses cold cathode fluorescent lamps or an LED backlight. The trouble is, the screens are very expensive, and they are difficult to manufacture in the large sizes that a lot of customers want nowadays; on top of this, as the OLED screens generate their own light, the screens “burn out” relatively quickly, and the colour rendition fading – blues especially “wash out” quite early on in the life cycle of the TV screen. All this in actual use may be relatively unimportant, as other factors are far more likely to affect the length of life of a modern flat screen television. Most TV’s on sale nowadays have so called “smart” functionality built in – the ability to stream media from companies such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, for example, and access to the web and sites such as YouTube is now something many people take for granted. In my opinion, the limiting factor in the real – life durability of a modern smart TV is not actually the display technology hardware, but is rather how long the TV remains in software support from the manufacturer. How long updates, patches and software downloads are available for the TV. For example, I have a Samsung TV from 2012; many of the applications installed on it will no longer run, as they are now out of support. The TV itself still works fine, but if you want watch BBC iPlayer, for instance, you are stuffed. The issue here is that most smart TV’s use a version of the Android operating system – which is constantly being updated and modified by its creator, Google. The problem is that the TV manufacturers usually stop providing Android updates to TV’s after a couple of years, and sooner or later versions of apps for TV’s stop working on older versions of the Android operating system. It seems from my research that a TV will cease getting OS updates at around the fourth year from the point of purchase. It seems to me that TV’s are going the way of the computer and the motor car – they are now seen as time limited, disposable devices. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Post Office and Cost Cutter convenience store in Erith High Street (shown in the photo above - click on it for a larger view) has just been put up for sale for £800,000. It is my understanding that it is being sold as an ongoing, viable business, and there are no plans to shut it down, or convert it for a different use. You can read all of the details by clicking here.

Now for the weekly safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly Barnehurst ward:- "On Saturday 11th November 2017 between 11.00 and 18.10 in Northall Road suspects smashed a rear patio window, a brick is believed to have been used. Entry to the property was gained and an untidy search followed with personal items taken. On the same night 11/11/17 between 06.35 and 21.10 in Hall Place Crescent the glass to the rear kitchen door was smashed and entry gained. An untidy search was found and personal items taken. On 12/11/17 a business premises in Midfield Parade was broken into by means of smashing a glass window to the front door. Petty cash was taken along with the till tray. CCTV nearby shows a person at the front of the property just after midnight, unfortunately the footage just shows a pair of legs from knees down due to the shops canopy obstructing view. On 14/11/17 between 02.50am and 03.00am another business premises in Mayplace Road East was broken into, again the glass to the front door was smashed and entry gained. Suspects made off with a small amount of cash. It is hoped the suspects are captured on nearby CCTV. Youths are continuing to target property’s in Taunton Close by throwing or hitting golf balls and damaging property. On 10/11/17 at 1030 a golf ball damaged property. On 09/11/17 at around 14.40 youths caused damage to a vehicle, it is believed person/persons have sat on the vehicle causing a dent to the bonnet. It’s the time of year again where burglars are out there and committing crime. Please take time to look at your home security and look out for your neighbours. Ensure wheelie bins are brought in on bin collection day, If you see post sticking out of letter boxes, push it through. If away for any amount of time let your trusted neighbours know, leave a key with a family member to close curtains etc. If you wish to discuss any of these issues raised or anything else, please join us for Coffee with cops at Barnehurst Golf Club on Thursday 23rd November 2017". Belvedere ward:- "Over the last week the team have been working on a variety of issues. PC Holmes arrested a male for 3 public order offences as well as a breach of court bail as part of an on going dispute. That male later attended court and was found guilty of public order offences, was given a hefty fine, a restraining order and ordered to 90 hours unpaid work. PC Holmes has also been working hard on the investigation of thefts of post in the Belvedere Park Estate. The team will be attending the Belvedere Park Residents Association meeting later this evening to discuss issues in the area and speak with residents. PC Holmes and PCSO Worrall were on duty on Remembrance Day and paid their respects on the Broadway with other Bexley officers. PC Holmes also arrested a male for criminal damage to a motor vehicle and malicious communications. The team will be in the Co-op on 22/11/2017 for a crime surgery at 11:30am should you wish to speak with the team in person". Brampton ward:- " We have a quieter week than the last few but still more than we would like. 2 x Burglaries in Heversham road and Dunwich Road - both occasions entry was to the rear of the property and cash and jewellery taken; 1 x theft of a wallet from a house in Normanhurst Avenue; Criminal damage to a motor vehicle in Birchington Close another vehicle tyre has been slashed at this stage we cannot rule out the foxes return and criminal damage to a property in Brampton road the front door window had been smashed; Theft from motor vehicle in Pickford lane cash stolen from an unlocked vehicles glove box; Theft of a motor vehicle in Pickford lane. This week we had meetings with neighbours , ward panel and Brampton councillors which were all very productive. Please follow us on twitter @MPSBrampton". Crayford ward:- "A number plate was pulled off a car parked at Screwfix on Friday 10/11/2017 between 07.00 and 09.00. A van was scratched along the front and side in Station Road between 04/11/2017 - 07/11/2017. There has been an increase in shoplifting. A lady had her purse stolen from her coat pocket at Aldi on Saturday 11/11/2017 between 16.00-16.20. We would ask that you are vigilant, keeping wallets and purses secured and out of sight. Please shield your pin number when using chip and pin or ATM machines. On Monday 20th November we will be at Darlton Hall at Darlton Close from 17.00-18.30 holding a “one stop cop shop”. This venue is close to Perry Street roundabout. We look forward to meeting our residents there".  Erith ward:- " Normal walks and patrols around the ward this week. Nothing of note to say this week. Next survey is 25/11/17 at 11am which will include bike marking - location is Pier Road Police base (next door to Farm Foods) . Weekly crime reports - We are still getting a lot of theft from MV [motor vehicles] please make sure nothing is on show including sat nav holders". Lesnes Abbey ward:- "From a Neighbourhood Watch Member in Fendyke Road - Just had a call from 01258963258 a 'Alan Watson' (although the name didn't match the accent) claiming to be from Talk Talk. He advised my IP address was being hacked and used to download lots of stuff. I calmly told him I would ring TalkTalk myself and he said I was silly not to believe him and he would cut me off to prove it (that old chestnut!). Said I would ring from mobile. I've since reported to TalkTalk and they've confirmed scam etc". North End ward:- " 3 more vehicle crimes have been reported this week. This is down on last week but 2 of them were items taken that were left on display inside the car. Please remember to remove all valuable items from your vehicles and leave nothing on display - phones, sat-navs, bags etc. We assisted with patrols on Bexleyheath Broadway last Friday evening. PC Mark Brookes-Smith had a successful foot chase culminating in multiple searches and a cannabis seizure. Excellent work. We visited a vulnerable adult at his home with various partner agencies and plans are already in place to get him the care he needs with our support. We have a surgery next Tuesday 21 November at Slade Green Library from 12 midday. Please come along and say hi".  Northumberland Heath ward:- "A fairly quiet week on the ward this week with only one attempted burglary reported to us in Hurlingham Road. On Thursday November 9th at approximately 6.15pm a male put his hand inside the letterbox at the address and the resident believed that a leaflet was being delivered. The suspect then tried the door handle several times and stood outside the address before walking away unwrapping what appeared to be a bandage from his hand. One criminal damage to a motor vehicle in Horsa Road on Friday November 10th where a vehicle was scratched causing £200 worth of damage. A cannabis warning form was issued to a man in Lawrence Road on Tuesday November 14th after a man was seen by officers smoking cannabis in his car. A charge is also to be issued to a youth who has recently breached a Criminal Behaviour Order after being stopped by officers". Thamesmead East ward:- "Good News, no burglary reported this week, however please see below regarding motor vehicle crime. Theft of Motor Vehicle – Tuesday 07/11/17 08:00 -12:00 hrs KALE ROAD Silver MAZDA. Theft from Motor vehicle – Tuesday 07/11/17 – 09/11/17 LYTHAM CLOSE Number Plates. The next Police Surgery will be held on Friday 24th November 2017 2:30 – 3:15pm at New Acres Library. 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. For the latest news and updates from Bexley Police, visit our twitter pages - @MPSBexley and @MPSThamesmeadE".

Wellingtons (Erith) Ltd is a family owned retailer established in 1898. Andrew Wellington and his team specialise in the sale of freestanding and built-in appliances, cookers, TV and home entertainment systems.  The family have retailed in Northumberland Heath for 119 years and is now in its 4th generation of ownership. As many will know I like to use and promote independent local businesses whenever possible. The end video is a short film about Wellingtons - leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

OLED Dreams.

Google Street View have been busy - they have re - photographed all of Erith recently, which is just as well, as the original photos from 2007 were starting to look rather out of date. The photo above shows Google's view of McDonald's and KFC from James Watt Way - more about them both later.

New BBC sitcom Citizen Khan is supposed to have stirred up much controversy in the Muslim community – or so the Daily Mail (never the most measured of media commentators) would have us believe. Personally I think it is quite an old fashioned show. The central premise is the daily life of a working class British Asian family in Birmingham. Dad, Mr. Khan is opinionated, slightly pompous and a self appointed community leader. He’s also a skinflint, and a keen social climber. Mother is house proud and really wears the trousers in the relationship. There are two daughters – an older one about to be married, and a younger one who is the apple of her Dad’s eye, but is secretly rebellious. Local mosque manager is an English convert to Islam, who is the moral compass of the show.  Personally I cannot see how anyone could be offended by the comedy – it is little more than an updated version of “Terry and June” or "Desmond's" set in the West Midlands amongst a British Pakistani family. My personal take on the show is that it is doing what television should – showing Muslims like any other religious or cultural group by subjecting them to a gentle, warm hearted sitcom. The running jokes about religious beaurocracy, parental hypocrisy and teenage cunning have a similar look and feel too many previous BBC offerings from the sixties and seventies – hence my initial comment that Citizen Khan actually feels somewhat old fashioned. See what you think about this clip below:

Once again the local press get onto a story just after I have featured it on the Maggot Sandwich. The Bexley Times is running with an article about Bexley Invicta football club, that I wrote about last week. Although they will be undertaking training sessions in Danson Park, their home ground is at Erith Town’s football ground in Avenue Road – part of Erith Sports Centre. You can see the Bexley Invicta website here

The Olympic and Paralympic games were meant to be the cause of a great surge in large screen and smart TV sales in the UK. This simply has not happened. There was a small rise in sales, but nothing like the expectations of the economists. I think the reasons are several fold; firstly, many people don’t have much in the way of disposable income, and a “big ticket” purchase like a TV is not their priority. Secondly, fewer people watch television on a TV than in the past. With online services like the BBC iPlayer now supporting mobile devices such as tablets and mobile smart phones, the requirement for the family to sit together to watch “the haunted fish tank” are no longer there. People watch TV on the move, and time shift programmes to watch them when it suits them. The other hold – off for technically savvy people is that we have been told for the last couple of years that a new generation of screen technology is just around the corner. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode - thanks JustJon!) screens have been touted by the industry leaders – Samsung and LG – as being the next big thing. OLED screens need no back light; the pixels generate light internally. This means OLED screens can be almost impossibly thin, whilst also being extremely bright, and having an excellent contrast ratio. Promises have been made, and last year Samsung promised commercially available OLED televisions in their range “by September 2012”. These promises are starting to look hollow. The reason that even now you can only see prototype OLED screens at trade shows and the like is simple. They burn out quickly. Because they don’t have backlights, the individual pixels have to effectively burn themselves out in order to give a vibrant, dynamic picture. This is a form of controlled self destruction; the problem that the OLED manufacturers have encountered is the one of the usage model. You can get away with a limited screen lifespan in something like a smart phone – when even the most goggle – eyed user won’t have the screen on for more than a few hours a day. This approach simply does not work when applied to televisions. Plenty of people keep their TV on all of the time, even when it is not being directly watched; they use them as a form of background noise / companion for the dog whilst they are out. At the moment OLED technology is just not up to this level of utilisation – the screens burn out too quickly. LG have announced that they have a 55 inch OLED TV undergoing testing prior to commercial release, with a specific focus on quality and longevity. One other problem is that as the pixels age, the quality of the image they generate degrades, so that well before the screen is at a point of end of life burn out, the image quality is greatly degraded. There are also considerable production problems, such as the level of error tolerance limiting production runs (who can forget the “dead pixel” problems some of the early plasma TV’s suffered from?) The sets are plain difficult to mass produce. Both Samsung and LG have poured vast amounts of cash into OLED TV design and manufacturing, and they will both be keen to recover their investments by actually getting OLED products out and into the market place. For now though, OLED HDTV remains an unfulfilled promise. Rest assured, when they eventually hit the market, they will cost a King’s ransom.

Over the past few weeks, I have been highlighting the woeful state of hygiene in the food outlets in Erith, and the wider London Borough of Bexley. The fact that no independent takeaway or restaurant gets more than two stars out of a possible five – and the minimum recommended star rating to make a place relatively safe to eat is three out of five stars. This means that the only places in and around Erith that are safe to eat in, are chain fast food outlets including KFC and McDonald’s. A depressing thought. It may be technically safe to eat in either place as they are kept clean and hygienic, but one has to wonder about the long term health risks from consuming the kind of food both places sell. I have been in the KFC twice since it opened around ten years ago. I find their fried chicken extremely oily and packed with salt. Their special gravy is undeniably delicious, but it contains enough additives that it is a wonder diners don’t glow in the dark afterwards. The chicken meat KFC uses does not strike me as being of particularly good quality either – it tends to be stringy and full of gristle. I did some research into the kind of chicken that KFC use. To be honest, if you like eating at KFC, then please don’t do a Google search on the subject, as the results do not make comfortable reading. The information I read was relevant to KFC in the USA, not the UK, and was compiled by PETA, so it was hardly an unbiased view. Nevertheless KFC chicken is about as far from free range as it is possible to get. I won’t go into grisly details, but it is not as healthy and all American as the company and their advertising agency would have us believe. McDonald’s (in the UK, at least) have made a concerted effort over the last few years to improve the quality of their ingredients, and are pretty open about the nutritional content of their offerings. I still find their food bland and quite often indigestion inducing though. I have to say I do like the Filet of Fish, though I fail to understand why they need to make the bread that makes up the bun so sweet. To be honest, it is just a commercialised version of that paragon of quick, tasty and healthy eating – the classic British fish finger sandwich – yum! McDonald’s alter the content of their menu depending on the customs and tastes of their target market – no pork in Muslim countries, more fish in Scandinavia and so on. In fact the company have just announced that they intend opening a chain of purely vegetarian outlets in India. After poking around the web, I have discovered that the Indian McDonald’s already sell the McAloo Tikki burger (see the photo above - click for a larger view), which I have to say does sound quite appetising (providing they have not made it taste bland, as they are wont to do in the UK). I wonder if they will bring this burger to the UK, bearing in mind the love we Brits have for all Indian food?

I have never really been much of a computer gamer; my reflexes and timing were never really good enough for me to excel at arcade style shoot –em – ups, and I don’t have the time or patience for something like World of Warcraft (which I have tried, but did not like). I was always more of a role playing gamer, and for many years I played Dungeons and Dragons. Back in the late 90’s, not that long after my local role playing club broke up, I latched onto a version of Dungeons and Dragons for the PC. It was called Baldur’s Gate. The graphics and technology were no great shakes by modern standards, but it did adhere closely to the rules and game play of the paper based version. Baldur’s Gate quickly became a bench mark for computer based role playing fantasy adventure games, and I have to admit that I spent hours playing it, though I never did actually manage to finish it. I recently discovered that the game has been rewritten for modern hardware, improved and expanded, and is due to be released as Baldur’s Gate – the Enhanced Edition. It is going to be available for Windows, OS X, iPad and Android by the end of September. You can see the game website here. I will be buying the Mac version as soon as I can. 

Bexley Council are once again provoking the ire of their residents. They have repeatedly been in hot water over their secretive and conspiratorial undertakings in the past, and this unfortunately does not look like it is going to change any time soon. They have announced that they are “considering” new changes to the law to make local government more open and accountable to their residents. This is from a council that has repeatedly ignored a directive from Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles that all council decisions, including those affecting budgets and local services will have to be taken in an open and public forum. Bexley Council ban the use of video and audio recorders during council sessions – despite this being contrary to the Government guidelines. Local Blogger John Kerlan (also known as Olly Cromwell) challenged this last year, and ended up in court on trumped up charges that eventually were dismissed on appeal. You can read all of the details of the complex and convoluted case on the Bexley Is Bonkers website – the account there is far more cogent and well written than I could attempt.  Suffice to say that Bexley Council have a very poor reputation for openness – which is strange. Personally if I were leader of the council, I would stream all meetings on YouTube, have all council decisions fed on an official Twitter site and generally make all goings on as public as possible. I think that when the general public saw what a tedious event an average council meeting was, they would soon find something far more interesting to take up their time. Coincidentally Bexley Councillor Peter Craske has been in court again this week; he’s accused of misconduct in a public office. To be fair to him, no charge has yet been formally made – and he’s been re – bailed to appear in court again on the 16th of October. I have a hint of a suspicion as to what is going on, but I am going to say nothing until he’s brought to trial and his guilt (or indeed otherwise) is determined. 

The video this week is a minor and now much overlooked classic - a full length made for television movie I recall seeing on Channel 4 back in 1984. It is called "Countdown to Looking Glass" - it is covers the fictional breakdown in relations between the USA and Soviet union in the mid 1980's, leading to outright warfare between NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the Middle East. The whole thing is shown through the news broadcasts and interviews of a New York based rolling news station. Although a work of fiction, it is well written and acted; what makes it all the better is that some of the interviewees on the station are real people playing themselves - a very young looking Newt Gingrich is one such person, as is Eugene McCarthy - see who else you can spot. I recall seeing it and wondering how it was received in the USA, as it was along the same lines as the infamous Orson Welles' radio version of "War of the Worlds". It all looks pretty laughable now, but I recall that everyone was petrified at the thought of a nuclear war - many had not long before watched the accurate and horrific documentary - drama "Threads". The film starts abruptly, with no opening credits or music - it is as if the viewer had just switched channels to find a news programme already in mid flow. Do give it a watch and let me know what you think. It looks somewhat dated nowadays, but when I saw it back in '84, it was cutting edge drama.

Hit and Run.

A photo above, showing the car park ar Erith Railway Station, that has been converted into a builders' yard for the work to extend the station platforms. I would like to be in a position to announce significant progress, but as previously reported, the work is proceeding more slowly than an arthritic sloth dosed up on Diazepam. I feel that it is going to be substantially more time until the relatively simple and minor piece of civil engineering is completed.

During the week I received this official notification from our MP for Erith and Thamesmead, Teresa Pearce. She's raised the matter of the lack of disabled and buggy access to Erith Station in Parliament.  I quote the Hansard entry below:

Ticket Office Closures

2. Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab): Whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment of the proposal in the McNulty report on closure of ticket offices. [88222]

The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers): No impact assessment has been conducted of this proposal in the independent report undertaken by Sir Roy McNulty.

Teresa Pearce: Disabled people in my constituency already have trouble accessing work and leisure opportunities in London because Erith station’s London-bound platform has no disabled lift or step-free access. They are advised by the train operating company to travel in the opposite direction for 15 minutes and then change trains. The closure of the ticket office at Erith will further disadvantage this group of people. Will the Minister consider an equality impact assessment on the proposal and reject McNulty’s plans to close ticket offices, particularly at places such as Erith, where disabled people already face a difficult journey?

Mrs Villiers: In considering the recommendations of the independent McNulty report and before any decision was made on changes to future ticket office rules, it would of course be vital carefully to assess the needs of disabled communities and pensioners. That would be a very important part of any decisions made on future reform of ticket offices.

Good on her for standing up for local people. I am unsure what effect it will have, but at the very least it has given the whole sorry issue a high profile with the Government. It will make any squirming by Southeastern Trains all that harder.

The photo below was taken by Ian, AKA The reV. It shows Erith river front from Erith Pier just after sunset earlier this week. Please excuse the small amount of digital noise; the shot was taken from a camera phone. Nice view anyway.

I read in the press that Spanish banking giant BBVA is switching much of its' business to the cloud. They are going to be using the web based Google Apps for many processes, rather than the monopolistic Microsoft Office. Don't mistake the feature limited free version of Google Apps you may have tried for the subscription based full enterprise cloud service. If you buy the enterprise version, it looks and feels like a custom written business application suite, with branding and customisation pertinent to your specific company. High uptime and availability, and contractually binding service level agreements come as standard. The video below is a little long in the tooth now, but it does illustrate the point of cloud based computing very well indeed. One of the very first enterprises anywhere to adopt Google Apps was local building company Erith Construction, whose head office is located in the old Erith Job Centre in Queens Road. They have been using Google Apps since 2008, and their Chief Information Officer has the following to say about the service:

Before anyone thinks I am getting partisan and plugging Google in particular; I just want to illustrate the move away from traditional locally installed applications to web based ones - the Erith related link to Google Apps was too good a local geographic connection to miss. Another very good cloud based business solution that you may not have heard of is Zoho Office. A cloud based finance package from accounting software Intuit is called Mint - you can read about it by clicking here. There are lots of others if you use a search engine to have a dig around.

A bit of a result this week; following last week's rant about the crumbling state of the surface of Manor Road, and the project to lay a film to reduce the amount of industrial dust experienced by both travellers on the road and local residents; I received a couple of Emails from Bexley Council Environmental Health department. I have edited the detailed comments below:

We made more detailed enquiries from Transport for London regarding the application of Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA) following your concerns. The project operations manager advised that CMA is effective on both paved and unpaved surfaces. Apparently CMA has been found to be more effective on unpaved roads as it binds the surface of the road. The use of the CMA dust suppressant in Manor Road is primarily due to Transport for London needing to trial the use of the substance in the areas across London where industrial sites, such as waste transfer stations, are contributing to PM10 levels such that they exceed the limit values. The trial will be fully subsidised by TfL and independently evaluated by King’s College (Londonair) and they will hope to use the data from the station at CITB and your gravimetric in this evaluation. The CMA corridor application started last Sunday/ Monday (always in the early hours of the morning) and it will be applied in both directions three times per week (between Sunday and Thursday) until 27 February when it will be applied five times per week by TfL contractors. This initial application will continue for three months. It is thereafter anticipated that the CMA application will be repeated for another three months during the summer months. CMA’s use along Manor Road is a short term measure that will improve air quality this year, it is cost effective given that existing machinery used for the wider Clean Air Fund across London is being utilised and Bexley has not been required to modify any of our vehicles.  In the longer term the Environmental Agency and London Borough of Bexley are working to ensure that business’ clean up their operations by doing more to reduce pollution directly, such as enclosing dusty operations and wheel washing etc where practicable. I have discussed the road surface with the TfL representative when  he visited Manor Road and I will pass on your concerns and the details you have provided in your blog to give a comprehensive picture of the current situation.

So it looks very much like a win / win for local residents - council tax payers will not have to pay for the dust reduction measures being deployed, yet we get to benefit from the results. I call that a more than satisfactory outcome.

I got home from work on Monday evening to find that my front gate was hanging at an angle. Mystified, when I examined the gate post, I discovered that the solid wood post, only installed in August 2009 after the catastrophic lorry crash in July of that year (click here to read my blog entry on the issue, and to see my photos taken at the time) was completely shattered – there was a large gouge in the post as well. It was evident that something heavy had hit the post with considerable force. I decided to consult the Pewty Acres security system. Upon checking the CCTV video feeds (see screen captures of the video above - click for a larger view) from the two front of house cameras, I found that at lunch time that day a large red forklift truck, illegally driving on the pavement was carrying a large steel plate over the load carrying forks. The driver misjudged his steering and collided with my front gate post. The chap did not stop to leave a note, but hurried off, thinking that nobody would be any the wiser. I have reported the matter to the Police – not so much for the damage to the gate post (annoying and inconvenient though this is), but more to try and prevent an incident of a similar type happening again. From the photos, the sheet of steel was being driven along the pavement at about the same height as a small child in a baby buggy. I am concerned that an impact of the type that ruined my gatepost could prove fatal to a child. I know where the fork lift truck came from, but unfortunately I cannot be certain as to who was driving it (though I have my suspicions). The angle of the cameras deliberately does not allow filming into areas frequented by the general public. After all, they are there purely to protect my property. After consulting with the local Police, they confirmed that the act of the fork lift driver was indeed criminal. Legally, I have been advised that the incident is a Road Traffic Accident, which it is an offence to leave the scene of. The forklift driver realised that he had caused damage with his vehicle, but then immediately left the scene. This is an offence. Unfortunately the chance of securing an arrest or conviction are extremely low, as the offenders face is not visible in the footage. I may have a word or ten with their employer though - as I know where the forklift comes from. Legally speaking, I would probably not best advised in naming and shaming the company who own the vehicle, so I will keep my own counsel for now. More (perhaps?) next week. 

Many column inches have been written about Sherlock – the excellent re-imagining of the famous fictional detective in a contemporary world. Much has also been written about the readily apparent problems with the most recent series of Doctor Who, which had been haemorrhaging viewers with every episode – I have heard rumours that had it been pretty much any other mainstream show, it would have already been axed by the BBC. Criticisms include that the story lines are way too convoluted, that there are too many recurring characters, there are plot holes, and more importantly, the show is becoming boring. What is supremely ironic, seeing one show on the way up, whilst the other is most definitely on the way down, is that they are both made by the same production team, and the same writers. To myself and others I have spoken to, Dr Who has become formulaic and soap opera like. The opposite can be said of Sherlock. It is brilliantly written, well acted and keeps the viewer thinking. It is a mystery that both programmes originate from show runner Stephen Moffatt, writer of some of the best episodes from the 2005 return of Dr Who. I cannot fathom what has happened to cause a man of undeniable talents to cause such an implosion on a show that has rightly been regarded as a national treasure. All I can think of is that he is stretching himself too thinly, trying to write and produce two high profile, big budget shows at the same time. I feel that someone needs to take over the producer duties on Doctor Who before the shows’ reputation becomes irretrievably tarnished. I have heard rumours (no idea how accurate) that the BBC have approached Russell T Davies to take the show back under his wing; what is known to be fact is that he left Who a couple of years ago to pursue his career aspirations to write for Hollywood. Unfortunately his partner developed brain cancer and they had to return to the UK. He’s not worked for over a year now. I would not be surprised if at the very least he pens an episode or two of the next series.

Shop lifting has been in the press to a great extent this week, due mainly to the incredibly selfish and stupid actions by celebrity garden gnome cook Anthony Worrall Thompson. Whilst having no sympathy for the rampant egotist, I can understand why the volume of shop lifting has increased. Some commentators opine that it is because of increased poverty due to the recession and the high cost of food in relation to average earnings. Indeed – this may be a contributing factor, but I think a much more likely factor is the now widespread use of self service tills by the supermarket chains. As I have written in the past, the wage savings the supermarkets make by employing fewer check out operators is negated by the increased cost in hiring security guards, which are usually employed on a higher hourly rate than the check out staff. Common methods of cheating the self service units include thieves getting the tills to continually generate error messages, to the point where they begin to get ignored in a “cry wolf” scenario; once this has happened, the crooks bag stuff without scanning. The self service checkouts may have CCTV, but the operators may well be tired or bored, and thus fail to take attention. On the other hand, I was made aware some time ago that large areas of Erith Morrison’s are without any security camera coverage at all. I know where, but for obvious reasons am declining to elucidate.

Mentioning Morrison’s (as I am wont to do), I noticed that in the week between Christmas and the New Year, Morrison’s had a full display of Easter Eggs and Easter Bunnies. They are still there now. To say that this is ridiculous is an understatement. How on Earth they can justify selling these months prior to the event, I really cannot understand.

Some time ago I featured the website of Erith based radio amateur, genealogist, gardener and meteorologist Bob Hewitt, and I have had a permanent link on the Maggot Sandwich to his excellent real time, web enabled weather station ever since. Bob has been in contact this week; the weather station is due for some major maintenance - its' main circuit board is being returned to the manufacturer under warranty. I know quite a few readers regularly visit the weather station site, so please be aware that it will be either unavailable or with a severely restricted service for a while. Bob is going to let me know when the station is fully back up and running, and I will let you know. I have removed the link on the right of this page for the time being.

Here is an absolutely outstanding piece of customer service management, which reflects very well on the Early Learning Centre. A chap by the name of Ross Mills, who half jokingly wrote a letter of complaint to the Early Learning Centre in respect of their sales of Lego Star Wars toys. Their response is considered, well written, and geek-tastic. You can read the whole exchange by clicking here.

The annual CES show in Las Vegas has just finished; CES is the largest consumer technology exhibition in the world, and it is the place where most tech companies show off their latest products prior to them being made available to the public. The 2012 show was a bit of a bumper one, with loads of shiny new gadgets being showed off for the first time. The video below shows a really stunning new bit of kit from Samsung - a transparent OLED display. In the video you will see how it is being used as an intelligent window. It really is quite remarkable; as the presenter mentions, it is bringing sci fi "Minority Report" technology to the present day. Thanks to Adam Foreman for bringing this to my notice. Watch and please feel free to leave a comment below.