The "No Phone" zone.

The photo above shows the Erith Mural. It is located next to the Kassiopi Cove children's soft play centre (what used to be the Blockbuster video hire store) in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre in Colebrook Street. The mural has nine panels depicting scenes inspired by the history of Erith, including the murder of Thomas A Beckett and the reign of Henry the VIII. The mural was designed and built by the artist William Mitchell between 1966 and 1970. The mural is constructed using an artistic technique called "Cloisonne" - which is similar to the production of stained glass windows. The mural was originally located on the side wall of the old Riverside Swimming Pool in Erith High Street, but was moved to its current location in the centre of the town just before the old pool site was demolished. 

Sky have launched their Ultra High Definition 4K satellite receiver, as I previewed a few weeks ago. The Sky Q service costs a not inconsiderable £54 a month for a new subscriber, plus a one – off setup cost of £299. On top of this, if you want Sky Sports there is an additional monthly fee of £27.50, and yet another £17 a month if you want Sky Movies. Totting this all up, it means an initial expenditure of £397.50, followed by a contractually obligated minimum of eighteen months payments of £98.50, which equates to £1773.00 over the duration of the contract.  I think that Sky may well be over – reaching themselves this time. If you were to use Freeview, along with subscriptions to Netflix (£7.49 a month) and Amazon Prime (£79 a year - £6.58 a month), the bill over eighteen months would come to £253.26, a saving of £1818.74 over the cost of Sky Q plus subscription, and the one off joining fee. I know that the content offered will not be quite equivalent – dumping Sky would lose a lot of live sport, but conversely the range of shows available on Amazon Prime and Netflix far outstrips Sky in every way, and on top of this there are no adverts – something that endlessly annoys me with Sky – why pay for a premium service, and still have adverts? Currently the two streaming services don’t offer 4K resolution, but many channels on Sky Q will still be in either HD or SD resolution, so it would not be the loss it might initially appear. I understand that Sky is already losing customers to their standard HD service due to viewers switching to the cheaper and better content services offered by both Amazon Prime and Netflix. I think that this will only accelerate over time. 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. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

After the very unusual publishing of the last Maggot Sandwich update on Saturday, rather than Sunday last week, a couple of readers have asked me how I go about writing each update. The process normally begins as soon as the last edition “goes to press” at around 1pm on each Sunday afternoon. I keep notes of stories that may have relevance or interest to readers, and I keep a list of ideas written on a notepad; the actual content gets written gradually over the course of the week. I get the impression that some readers think I sit down and write the whole thing on Sunday morning, but nothing could be further from the case. What happens on Sunday morning is that I edit together all of the little scraps I have written during the week into what I hope is a readable and entertaining form. I add the active web links (a chore which takes well over an hour in itself), and I also run some final sense checks, including checking that any submitted content from a third party or guest writer does not break any rules of taste or copyright. Last week I had a rare failure in this respect – partly I think because of the rush to get the update “out of the door” on Saturday. I would like to apologise to Andy Doran as it is clear that I inadvertently used text from what I later found out was on his website. I get sent stories from all number of sources – P.R companies (more on them later) volunteer organisations, Maggot Sandwich readers and a number of trusted sources that wish to be anonymous. I had been sent a Word document with a well – written piece on the history of Mobo Toys from someone who has sent me stories before;  they declined to be a guest author, so I just grabbed the text from the file and uploaded it into Blogger. It turned out my source, or someone who passed it to her had scraped the text almost word for word from the D and S pedal car restoration website. My error was in not checking this before publication; my only defence is that I was in a hurry to get the update published a day early, and in doing so I skipped the “due diligence” I normally carry out.  I know what it is like to be plagiarised; a certain local paper (now no longer in publication) used to semi regularly nick not only my stories, but my photos too. So I can well understand the feeling this generates.

The photo above was taken by Richard of the Thamesmead Grump blog, when we met at the Bexley History Fair at Hall Place last Sunday. I am seated in the photo, talking to a visitor about the Friends of Christ Church Erith, of which I am a committee member. The event went well, but it has to be said that Hall Place was bitterly cold; even though the Friends stand was located next to a very underpowered radiator, which felt like it was possibly the only (barely) working one in the building. Thanks to the number of Maggot Sandwich readers who came over to say "hello" and to introduce themselves. If you would like to learn more about the Friends of Christ Church Erith, click here, and to learn more about our forthcoming "Our Erith" art exhibition, you should click here.

On Wednesday morning I was standing on the London – bound platform of Erith station when the automated announcement heralding the arrival of the next train stated “this service will comprise of four carriages”. For a moment I thought that I had heard incorrectly , but when the train turned up it was indeed composed of only four carriages – half the normal length. I got on, and when the train arrived at Belvedere, the driver came on the public address system, and announced that the trains was now going to travel non – stop to London Bridge station. About two thirds of the passengers, myself included then got off and waited on the platform at Belvedere Station. An announcement which had many passengers scratching their heads in disbelief “The next London bound train is cancelled due to greater than normal passenger numbers”. Eventually a very crowded train turned up, and I was then able to travel to Greenwich to pick up my connection via the DLR to Canary Wharf and the office. If this was not bad enough, on Thursday afternoon I had to wait over forty minutes for a train from Greenwich back to Erith, when there is meant to be one every ten minutes. There were a fairly large number of very inconvenienced and annoyed people. Southeastern Trains and Network Rail need to share the blame. The News Shopper has been giving them a hard time, as have several local MP's - with very good cause in my opinion. Teresa Pearce said "I have just one train line running through my constituency, two tracks, three stations, one train rail line, what could go wrong? Well, Southeastern could go wrong. Before Southeastern we had Connex and Connex was terrible and we thought Southeastern would be better and we were wrong. I have a real appreciation of the frustration of the what it’s like to stand on a platform in the certain knowledge of the uncertainty of the train service.” In the same News Shopper interview, Jim Dowd, MP for Lewisham West and Penge, said: “I join in the general wailing and gnashing of teeth about the service that is is allegedly provided by Southeastern, it’s not unreasonable to expect a reasonable service particularly in light of the amount of money they pay. I wish though Southeastern would put as much effort into running the trains on time as they do into providing some of the excuses for why they don’t.” Well said that man! More on Southeastern and their continual delays and cancellations later. 

There has been extensive coverage in the press this week as to how the major betting companies, and Paddy Power in particular have been exploiting vulnerable “high stakes” gamblers. Much of the problem with these high spending, big losers is not down to traditional bets placed on horses, dogs or football, but is instead due to an addiction to fixed odds betting terminals (FOBT), these are a kind of electronic gambling machine, with far higher odds than the traditional “one armed bandit”. A recent report makes for extremely troubling reading; it reveals that in the 55 most deprived boroughs in the UK – overwhelmingly located in Northern cities and urban Greater London have a  total of 2,691 bookmakers shops, in which £13 billion was gambled on FOBT machines, and £470 million lost by gamblers in the last year alone. In the same time period, there were 1,258 bookmakers shops in the 115 wealthiest areas, adjusted to cover the same volume of population, within which players gambled a total of £6.5 billion, losing £231 million.  The report was commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, and shows that the large betting companies have targeted the poorest areas that have the highest unemployment, lowest per capita income and higher crime rates. The last year has also seen a large increase in the number of high street betting shops, mainly due to the leap in the total number of FOBT machines, such as digital roulette in use. In December 2013 there was a total of 9,343 active betting shop licences in the entire United Kingdom, which was an increase of 280 since 2012. The most deprived town council in the UK was identified as being Liverpool. A total of £118 million was gambled in 570 machines, and £23 million was siphoned off by bookmakers in the process. In the same time scale, the place voted as the most desirable place to live in the UK – the Hart district of Hampshire there are just seven betting shops with a total of 24 Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. Liverpool council have understandably got very worried by the figures, and are now keen to place strong control measures on the betting shop operators. The problem with FOBT machines is that large amounts of money can be spent on the machines very quickly, and losses can mount up almost before the gambler realises. A hundred pounds can be lost in no more than thirty seconds. Nick Small, of Liverpool City Council said of the situation “millions of pounds that should be used for paying for food and rent was being sucked into the FOBT machines. Bookies are arriving all the time into prime retail locations. This is all driven for FOBTs. I have no doubt of it. We are seeing horrific reports of family breakdown caused by gambling debts, problems with loan sharks. We are pretty sure organised crime is using the machines to launder money. It's out of control in a city like ours, where there are a lot of poorer people”.  The same situation exists all around the UK, with poorer areas – just like Erith, being hit far harder than wealthier regions. Industry observers have commented that one way to reduce the problem specific to FOBT machines would be to limit the maximum stake gambled to £2 – like ordinary one armed bandit machines, and to limit the maximum pay out to £100. The gambling industry is not keen on this approach, for obvious reasons. To add to this, the Government are now showing an interest, as the subject is gaining column inches in the press now - despite the Government deciding not to place limits on the payouts of FOBT machines when it debated the issue last Summer. The issue has been ongoing for a number of years now, with little interest from the press. This would now appear to be changing, mainly due to a shocking story that was widely reported earlier this week. Bookmaker Paddy Power encouraged a problem gambler to keep betting until he lost five jobs, his home and access to his children, according to a report by the Gambling Commission. The company also failed to perform sufficient checks to ensure customers were not using its betting machines to launder the proceeds of crime. The betting regulators said that Paddy Power would make a voluntary payment of £310,000 to a “socially responsible” cause following its findings. Paddy Power will also be forced to review procedures designed to prevent money laundering and problem gambling and agree to share details of its own failings with the rest of the industry. In one case, Paddy Power admitted that senior staff encouraged a man with a gambling problem to keep betting despite warnings by more junior employees. The man  was a frequent user of fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which have been referred to as the “crack cocaine” of gambling. The machines allow customers to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds on games such as roulette and blackjack, for which the odds are fixed. In May 2014, Paddy Power staff became aware that the anonymous man was working at five separate jobs to fund his gambling and “had no money”, the Gambling Commission said. Although he claimed to be comfortable with his level of gambling, shop staff passed their concerns up the chain to senior staff, who advised monitoring him. Later that month, the shop manager informed a more senior member of staff that the man would be visiting the shop less frequently. The senior employee responded by advising that “steps should be taken to try to increase the customer visits and time spent in the gambling premises”. All of the large gambling chains have signed up to responsible gambling initiatives, and it would appear that in many cases, shop staff have indeed reported customers who seemed to be gambling larger amounts than they could afford, or coming into the betting shop more frequently than normal, but it would seem that senior management have been culturally inclined to ignore these reports in order to keep their profits up. It has also recently come to light that fixed odds betting terminals are being used by criminals to launder illegally acquired cash. Criminals can use games such as roulette to launder money at a small cost. For instance, someone with £100 in cash could place £48 on black, £48 on red and £2 on green, or 0. The maximum they could lose would be £4, at which point they could ask a bookmaker to put the remaining £96 on their debit card. The money would then appear as a legitimate payment from a bookmaker, hiding the fact that it could have been cash from a criminal enterprise. The Gambling Commission said that in August 2014, a shop manager suspected that a woman they called Customer B, a longstanding user of Paddy Power shops, was using gambling facilities to launder Scottish bank notes. The manager related their suspicions to more senior members of staff on four occasions over six months. But senior staff “repeatedly overruled” the shop manager, saying that as the notes were British currency and were not stained or counterfeit, it was unlikely that the money was being laundered. None of the suspicions were reported to the company’s money laundering reporting officer. Paddy Power only barred the customer after police raised fears that Scottish banknotes that were the proceeds of crime were being laundered in London. Subsequent checks revealed the customer could not validate ownership of a business she claimed to belong to her. The company initially told the Gambling Commission it had followed its money laundering policy but later admitted it had not dealt with its staff members’ suspicions properly. Now that this information is in the public domain, attitudes towards the big betting companies may now begin to change. At least they are very visible on many high streets, whereas online gambling is far less high profile and anonymous. Personally I have no interest in any form of gambling, but it would appear to be a large number of people do, and the line between “fun” betting and addiction would seem to be a very fine one. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

You may recall I recently covered the story concerning the very sudden closure of the Paper Moon in Dartford, and the (unsuccessful) campaign to keep the popular venue open. Pub owner Wetherspoon’s are undergoing a campaign to close down unprofitable pubs, and then open new pubs in areas where new business is thought to be located. Generally I am pretty ambivalent when discussions turn to Wetherspoon’s pubs – in general I find them a bit formulaic and samey, albeit with a good selection of reasonably priced real ales and not bad food. I very much prefer traditional pubs, but I can understand the attraction of a chain where reliability and predictability are key. I visited the newly refurbished New Cross Turnpike in Bellegrove Road, Welling last Saturday. The place has not long been reopened following an extensive refurbishment after being gutted by an accidental fire last August. I have to say that I was very impressed by the place. The refurbishment included some architectural redesigns within the building, as well as the use of higher quality materials than before. The pub is still on two levels (something that the serving staff must hate, as meals have to be taken upstairs to customers on the upper level by hand). I am very surprised that the designers / architects did not think to include a “dumb waiter”. The place is light and airy, with lots of glass, but the pub does suffer the problem so very common with Wetherspoon’s in general – the toilets are a very long way from the public areas, involving somewhat of a route march. I get the feeling that after a couple of shandies, by the time you make it back to the bar from the bogs, it would be time to go to the loo again. Having said that, I was very impressed – the place is clean and well run, with well – trained, helpful and attentive staff; the food was very good, and reasonably priced, and this obviously reflects well with the customers. By 12.30 on Saturday lunchtime, both the upper and lower floors were heaving with people, many of whom were ordering food as well as drinks. It may have helped that Welling United were playing at home later in the afternoon, but the diversity of the crowd suggested that many of the visitors were not there for a pre – match drink. It was certainly busy. I think that Wetherspoon’s have a lot they could teach Marston’s – the pub company / brewer who own and operate the Morgan in Clydesdale Road, Lower Belvedere. The Morgan is a pub / restaurant in a similar vein to Wetherspoon’s, and has been open for roughly a year. I have visited the place three times recently, and had cause to complain on two of the visits. I recently wrote to the manager saying “I thought it best to bring  a few observations concerning staff training and service levels to your attention in respect of a visit this lunchtime. A group of five people including myself visited the Morgan at 12.30pm this afternoon; we were seated at table 24. My friend ordered a pot of tea - when it was delivered, it was evident that the cup had not been properly washed up. The lady who served the tea had to sort through three other cups in order to find one that was acceptably clean. When this was delivered it too was found to be dirty, and a fourth replacement had to be sourced. This is unacceptable. Cleaning standards need to be improved.  Secondly, when the same friend went to the bar to place a drinks order, she was acknowledged by the server (a lady with a badge name of "Aeron") but when further customers approached the bar, my friend was ignored in preference of the new customers. The fact that my good friend is a British African lady made the situation look racist. At the very least it was an extremely unprofessional way to treat a paying guest. On top of this, "Aeron" opened a bottle of blackcurrant cordial, dropped the lid on the floor, then immediately replaced it on the bottle, in contravention of Health and Safety regulations.  Two of my group of five opted for the carvery meal - it was evident that the meat had been reheated and was dry and tough , and the mashed potato was made from an instant potato mix - again not acceptable at a Marston's restaurant  - you have a reputation for quality which was not met on this occasion. It is apparent that there are insufficient staff available for main service at the location - most of the staff are helpful, if not very well trained - as you may recall, I contacted you three months ago, after being double charged for a meal, which you agreed was an error, but have not still not refunded. The Morgan could be very good and a real asset to the local community, but a lack of training, and some poor quality staff do not help matters”. I got a very vague and slopey shouldered reply from the Morgan Management, which I won’t publish here, but suffice to say it did little to allay my concerns. It shows that two very similar enterprises, only separated by a few miles can have completely different approaches to customer service, and in my eyes Wetherspoon’s is easily the winner. Have you experienced something similar, or have you had excellent service in the Morgan? I would love to revisit and give it a glowing report, as it could be excellent with a few changes to the way it is run. At present however, it barely scrapes a three out of five, whereas the New Cross Turnpike gets a solid four and a half out of five. The benchmark for pub hospitality and service is set by the family run freehouse The Robin Hood and Little John in Lion Road Bexleyheath. It is the only hostelry in the borough to get the Arthur Pewty five stars of excellence award.

As I mentioned last week, I get all sorts of promotional junk sent to me by public relations companies, most of which gets read and binned by me. On Tuesday I received a message which I thought might well be of interest to some readers, especially bearing in mind that today is Mothering Sunday, and my previous experiences above relating to pub eating that I have just recounted. On top of this it mirrors my very own well - publicised antipathy towards mobile phones. See what you think:- "The introduction of the smoking ban saw an end to restaurants being split into smoking and non-smoking areas but this Sunday, Beefeater are introducing a new kind of dining segregation - a 'No Phone Zone'. Launched to coincide with Mother's Day, Britain's best-known steak restaurant has taken the bold step to create 'phone free' areas in response to research that outlines behaviour that can ruin family outings. Top of the table on the list of family outing-ruiners was 'constantly checking phones at the table', which 54 percent listed as the single most likely occurrence to cause an argument. The second and third most likely argument starters were a family member being underdressed or scruffy for the occasion (28 percent) and family members having earphones constantly plugged in (18 percent). Conversely, 'family conversation' is rated as the single most beneficial aspect of a good day out, with nearly two-thirds of respondents suggesting that just having a nice chat is the best bit of a family outing. Beefeater guests will be able to book a 'No Phone Zone' table for Sunday 6th March and those in the zone will have to hand their mobile phones to staff 'as a deposit' when they arrive. Hawk-eyed Beefeater staff will patrol the 'No Phone Zone' for mobiles and have the right to move guests who do not comply with the new rule. The 'No Phone Zone' will be trialled across sites this weekend, with a view to make the areas permanent if well received by diners. Sarah Tinsley, Head of Marketing for Beefeater said; "There's no denying the huge benefits our smartphones provide us, but there is a time and a place for their use and, especially on Mother's Day, we think we can do without them for an hour or two. Mums don't ask much of us and rarely even let us spend any money on them – so the least we can do is give Mums our undivided attention. "We hope this small adjustment to our setup enables a few more families to add some seasoned conversation to their meal." Beefeater is a British brand that first fired up the grill in 1974 and now has over 140 restaurants nationwide. The combination of great steak, friendly service and relaxed surroundings made Beefeater a big hit in Britain in the 70s, 80s and 90s and today is no different. For bookings please contact your local Beefeater or visit www.beefeater.co.uk". This could turn into quite a popular move, though I don't for one minute think it is anything other than a publicity stunt for Beefeater, thought up by the P.R company. We already have "quiet" carriages on some long distance train routes - I wonder if "quiet" areas in restaurants will take off in the same way?

The ending video this week is an update from Crossrail, showing the latest construction works being undertaken at Abbey Wood Station. If you watch carefully, during the interview with Nigel Fenn of Crossrail Engineering Management, which seem to have been held over the space of an hour or so on the London bound platform, and then edited together, you can see on the digital display board behind the interviewee that every single train heading towards London is delayed. Not that this has anything to do with Crossrail - it is the responsibility of Southeastern and Network rail, but it does reinforce the impression that Southeastern are a bunch of incompetents.

Brown bins and Bexley Council.

Bexley Council have now published a whole raft of documentation relating to the proposed redevelopment of the former Erith Riverside Swimming Baths site in the High Street. A large number of documents have been published as PDF files on the Bexley planning website; it has taken me a couple of days to plough through them in detail, and I found a few things that really surprised me. The developer, London and Quadrant submitted the following formal application:- “15/01084/FULM - Redevelopment of site to provide a mixed-use development comprising of 71 residential units (Class C3) consisting of 12 mews houses (up to 3-4 storeys), 59 apartments (up to 6 storeys) and 139 square metres of flexible retail/commercial floorspace (Class A1/A2/A3/B1/D1) together with associated access and egress from Erith High Street and Walnut Tree Road, 45 car parking spaces and 141 cycle parking spaces, a drop-off space, refuse stores, plant and relocated substation at ground floor level, a raised landscaped amenity area at first floor level and associated highway works. Demolition of existing electricity substation.  Former Riverside Swimming Centre Erith High Street Erith Kent”. You can view all of the planning documents by clicking here. It takes quite a time to go through them all, as there is a huge amount of detail. Personally, first impressions are somewhat mixed. The vacant swimming baths site will make an excellent location for some new housing, located as it is right opposite the Riverside Gardens and the banks of the River Thames. If the development was in somewhere like Hammersmith or Chiswick, each apartment would cost squillions. Initially my reaction was - do they really have to be so ugly? The blocky, angular look might be the in – things with trendy architects right now, but in my opinion the design will date extremely quickly. I also notice that the car parking provision is lacking – seventy one homes with only forty six parking spaces. London and Quadrant argue in their supporting documentation that car ownership in Erith is lower than the national average, and that many residents will use public transport instead. I have to agree that Erith is well serviced by buses, and the trains are fine (when they are running, with the caveat that if you have a baby buggy or need to use a wheelchair and need to go to London, you are stuffed, as there is no step – free access to the London bound platform, despite a concerted campaign).  However, the town has no Docklands Light Railway or Tube, and Crossrail will terminate at Abbey Wood, a couple of miles away. The main reason that car ownership in Erith is below average is not because the area is full of Hipsters who don't need a car as public transport is so good, it is because quite a large portion of the local population cannot afford to run a car. The new riverfront accommodation will be tempting to wealthier people from outside of the area, who may well have two or more cars. Even if half of the housing is for affordable rent, it still means that the figure of 46 parking spaces is very much on the low side; on top of this, the drawings published on the Council website show a critical design error – enclosed garages below the mews houses will, if constructed in the manner shown on the drawing, create a secluded and dark space which will encourage drug taking and vandalism – a lesson I thought planners had learned from Thamesmead, where the underground and ground floor parking areas have proved to be a crime magnet. Details like this can make a real difference to the success or otherwise of a development. For me, the elephant in the room is one aspect of the proposed development that seems to have been thus far overlooked. The current electricity substation, located in between the old Library site in Walnut Tree Road and the area formerly occupied by the swimming baths site is to be relocated to the small parcel of land that lies behind the Running Horses pub. This will be a huge operation, and I would imagine possibly the most difficult and expensive part of the project. As I understand it, the substation is fed by large cables which run under the River Thames from Essex, and form part of the National Grid power infrastructure. It is not just a local transformer, but a vital part of the electricity distribution network for South East London and North Kent. I wonder if the scope and scale of this has been fully taken into account? The costs of the relocation would be large, and would need to be factored into the eventual sale price of the development as a whole – making a fifty percent affordable housing level more difficult to maintain – I would not be surprised if the actual number of affordable properties starts to quietly drop as time goes by.  Personally I have no problem with the site being used for housing; I just feel that a better job could be made than what is currently being shown. I also note that a couple of the illustrative drawings show cars travelling in both directions along Erith High Street, when in reality it has been a one way street for ages. The devil is in the details. You can download a summary document (PDF file) regarding the whole proposal by clicking here. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me directly at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The gang related crime unit that has recently been set up in Thamesmead look like they have their work cut out right now. You may have read in the Evening Standard that there was a very serious gang related attack in Manordene Road, Thamesmead on Saturday 2nd June. A gang of yobs attacked a youth, hitting him over the head and causing some serious injuries, which meant that he was hospitalised in a “serious but stable” condition. None of the gang members have been identified or caught at the time of writing. Hopefully when the victim recovers he will be able to give the Police information which will lead to the arrest of the perpetrators. This kind of thing is what gives Thamesmead a bad name – especially when it makes the London Evening Standard. Levels of violent crime are generally in decline, but Thamesmead does seem to be bucking the trend. The Metropolitan Police have been proactive in setting up the ten officer anti-gang unit based in the town, but there are still numerous problems to overcome. I do wonder if the levels of violent crime have any links with the notorious Bike Life TV UK group that I have written about before. If anyone has any insight into this, please get in contact with me. It may be that Bike Life TV UK are unconnected, but from the outside the link is easy to make. What do you think?

The law of unintended consequences seems to have come into play yet again with Bexley council this week; Malcolm Knight of the excellent Bexley is Bonkers blog has reported that the children’s play park at Lesnes Abbey Ruins has been vandalised – the large helter skelter slide was torched in an arson attack - the photo above is the copyright of the Metropolitan Police. You can see Malcolm’s photos of the incident, and read his report here. The problem seems to be yet another case of Bexley Council and unintended consequences. The News Shopper have a lively comments page on the vandalism that you can see here. Bexley Council implemented a money – saving policy last year which means that parks are not locked at night, and the (limited) private security patrols that they used to have were stopped. This saved a small amount of money, but when acts of Arson like this happen, it can mean increases in insurance premiums for the Council, which end up being paid by the poor council tax payer. I think something of this nature was sadly inevitable. I just hope the scrotes who ruined the park for the hundreds of local children who regularly use it get caught - though I don't think it is very likely.

There is much controversy over Bexley council’s decision to implement extra charges for the collection of garden waste in September. The council will begin publicising the new scheme this week, with leaflets set to be delivered to homes across Bexley and a schedule of road show appearances throughout the summer to try and sell the scheme to a sceptical public. Many, myself included view the charge as a “stealth” increase in the council tax. I am fortunate in that it will not affect me, as my garden generates no waste whatsoever (it is entirely synthetic), but many elderly people and those on a limited income will be hit by the charges. In any case, there is a distinct chance that the whole council policy may well meet with a legal challenge, as the following article from the Legal Beagles consumer rights website:- “Following a public consultation North East Lincolnshire Council's cabinet agreed to introduce charge for garden waste collection which has, up until now, been a free service. There were only two options offered to residents which were either to state a preference to pay for the service (proposed £40 per annum) or to scrap it all together. It would appear that from a recent Supreme Court case ruling on the lawfulness of public consultations, that a simple offer of take it or leave it does not constitute a lawful public consultation. The ruling is clear that for this kind of consultation to be lawful, there must be offered alternative ways from which residents could choose to make savings or plug gaps in budgets. The case surrounded a consultation about the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS), though the judgment impacts on how all local authority public consultations should be conducted. It was held that the consultation did not offer any other ways to deal with the government cuts, such as raising council tax, cutting money to other council services, or using capital funds. (Those taking part in the consultation didn’t know there were potential alternatives to the system they wanted to use and was just presented as if they had no choice). North East Lincolnshire Council offered two options which were take it or leave it. It could have suggested for example making savings by sharing a Chief Executive with a neighbouring authority, using some reserves, reducing Councillor allowances/Councillors etc., etc. The authority is aware of the Supreme case and has proceeded regardless, offering no alternative for making savings in its public consultation. It is questioned if this is because it has taken a calculated risk that the odds of someone bringing a case against them is unlikely on the basis that the cost of court proceedings is far too prohibitive for the average ratepayer”. Interesting stuff indeed. It will be instructive to see if anyone challenges Bexley Council using this information. Malcolm Knight of “Bexley is Bonkers” has taken up this issue, as it sits closely with his mission to expose the ways in which the council fail to deliver on their promises. It is a pity that Bexley Council have an undeclared policy of ignoring petitions or other protests by local residents; as Bexley is Bonkers reported earlier this week, a Change.org online petition has been started  with the aim of persuading the council to drop the new additional charge for collecting and disposing of garden waste. You can see the petition, and sign it if you so wish by clicking here. Many of the comments on the petition run along the lines of “we pay enough council tax already!”, but one chap who hails from Sidcup was more succinct. He wrote:- “Bexley Council are a bunch of money grabbing gangsters”. Quite. Others point out:- "When I lived at my old house in Barnehurst, the leaves from the trees in Bursted Woods (Bexley owned) would blow into my garden. This would lead to up to 60 bags or brown bin fulls of leaves which we'd clean up and the Bexley would have the audacity to threaten to charge us - to clean up THEIR leaves. If they start charging, people will only be forced to fly tip or as I threatened to do - charge Bexley my consultancy rate to do their work”.

This week we have another restaurant review, this time by musician, activist and local resident Ian "The reV" Doherty. He takes a close look at the brand new pub / restaurant the Morgan, which opened last week in Lower Belvedere. "Not based in the most salubrious areas on the edge of the Belvedere Industrial Estate behind the giant Cob Horse sculpture and on the edge of ‘The place for fun and sun’ that’s known as Thamesmead the new Marston’s pub, The Morgan, opened a week or so ago and as far as I know the first pub to be built and opened in Belvedere in the past 50 plus years! Named after a type of small horse, (usually of a stout build with strong bones, large joints used for riding, pulling carriages and having a steady disposition) The Morgan is Marston’s brewery first pub in the South East. Marston’s apparently operates over 2,000 pubs in the UK, but none closer to the area than either Croydon or Dagenham so a bit of a trek till up to now. Marston’s are, according to their website, the world's largest brewer of cask ales (which surprised me) but as soon as I heard one of their pubs were opening in the area I was intrigued as I'm a big real ale fan. Marston's is actually 5 different breweries including Banks's (not a fan), Jennings (can’t even think of any of their beers off the top of my head), Ringwood (a BIG favourite of mine!) and Wychwood (love their cod Gothic marketing and branding but find their bottled beers a bit lacklustre). I popped in on a warm Summers Monday night to try the food with my family in tow and from the outside it has all the charm of a car park in the Thurrock Retail Park as it's surrounded by the new housing estate, so it’s a tad industrial as half the new homes are empty and there’s not a soul to be seen, still in a few years it should look more suburban and lived in. The pub building itself is actually quite nice, inoffensive and less of a “McBuild” than I was expecting, I even noticed they must have a live in landlord as I noticed knick-knacks on the upper floors window ledges so it’s not just a retail outlet kind of place. The exterior leans towards a sort of“Ye olde” barn type rather than a Lego style quick build I was expecting. Inside there’s a photo montage of old pictures of Belvedere on the lobby wall and its clear the place is a restaurant first and a pub second as the podium as you walk in states in big letters to “Please wait to be seated”. The seating is a mixture of tables and horseshoe shaped booths which creates a nice mixed ambience and there’s a few nice quirky touches like some of the lights hanging from the ceiling are 1970s style angle poise lamps. In the interior the sort of barn/rustic theme continues as its all whitewash walls and (fake) beams, it’s nice enough if a bit generic for my personal taste but it’s obviously clean and new. To give you a clue about the main purpose of the place there’s a 4ft high sign in the shape of (and spelling) the word “carvery” in bright red capital letters adjacent to the food serving area, it’s not a relax-in-an-overstuffed-sofa kind of pub. Overall the interior is nothing spectacular but it's bright, welcoming and just right for the type of place its aiming to be and very nice looking, something even, dare I say it, a little upmarket for the area. Service wise it was faultless although I prefer my waitresses to look a little less tattooed and reminiscent of Harley Quinn from the Batman games, still service was prompt and friendly (if slightly nervous). The menu is the usual pub/restaurant fayre but confusingly the Carvery has 3 plate sizes (ranging from £4.25 for the small on weekdays to £9.99 on a Sunday for the Large) the only difference I can see is that the Large means an extra slice of meat. I went for the Medium plate and piled it high with veg (all the usual sort of stuffs there: red cabbage, green cabbage, roast potatoes, carrots, mashed swede, peas etc.) the real surprise was that the food actually tasted of something! I've eaten on and off at The Lord Kitchener another similar local carvery restaurant/pub’s for years and although the portions are as large as you like there I've never been a fan as I always found the food pretty limp and tasteless, more one step up from school dinners/something to fill you up than to enjoy the taste of but the Morgan’s food was a very pleasant surprise. Now, the bit I was interested in, the drinks! Being a 5 brewery business means I hoped the choice of beer on draught would be stellar, I have to say I was a tad disappointed but I'm not really being fair, this isn't some small country pub in the middle of nowhere so I shouldn't have expected it to have some mythical unheard of pint of the Gods. I must admit I didn't take a note of all the beers names but they had on draught Hobgoblin, Pedigree, …um…some sort of golden ale…er…a Ringwood beer…look the kids were bothering me as I was ordering and the person behind the till was asking me if I wanted extra stuff so I kind of got distracted! Suffice to say draught wise there was a very nice choice far better than most of the other restaurant pubs in the area, there was also a full choice of the usual wines and spirits. Talking of kids there’s a large patio and play area which would be lovely if it didn’t face a busy roundabout (Oh and The Morgan is only about half a mile as the crow flies from Crossness sewage plant, something to think about) but the kids enjoyed it. Actually whilst we were there the Police turned up to talk to the Manager as although the pub had only been open for a week some light fingered toe-rag with a van or rather a gang of them had a couple of nights previously stolen ALL the pubs brand new garden furniture. Not a great start for the poor new landlord. Dessert wise they have great slabs of very nice looking cakes and cheesecakes (which in a bit of intelligent thinking can be boxed up to take home if you're too stuffed after your meal) as well as staples like ice cream and traditional puds. Overall I'd certainly say give it a visit. The food was the best I've had from a chain pub in a long time, the beer is a good choice and not ones you can get locally on draught anywhere else, the staff are warm and friendly, the price is reasonable rather than cheap and in fact the only thing letting it down a bit is its location". Thanks Ian - I think I will have to give the place a try. If anyone else has visited this new venue, please get in touch and let me know what you think of it - either leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com - thanks!

Local residents may have noticed that something is missing from the Erith skyline recently; over the last three or four years there have been a fairly constant stream of commercial ships moored on Erith Pier. Recently they seem to have stopped visiting, and I have been asked on more than one occasion why. The reason is actually very straightforward. The ships that regularly moored at Erith Pier were bulk carriers that were transporting spoil dug from the Crossrail tunnelling work to the newly reclaimed land that exists at Wallasea Island in Essex. The ships no longer moor at the pier because the twenty six miles of tunnelling work has now been completed; consequently there is no more spoil to shift. The new lines run from as far West as Reading in Berkshire to as far East as Shenfield in Essex. Ten new Crossrail stations are being constructed in central London and in London Docklands, as well as one at Abbey Wood. The Abbey Wood terminus is one of the two spurs, with another running to Heathrow Airport in West London. At peak, the tunnelling machines aimed for around one hundred metres of tunnelling progress a week. The final breakthrough was at Farringdon in the City of London. Running on some existing track as well as the new tracks through London, Crossrail will serve forty stations and increase capacity through London by ten percent. Crossrail's tunnels are made up of more than 200,000 concrete tunnel segments. Each tunnel segment weighs 3.4 tonnes. Trains will be at least 200 metres long and there will be up to 24 trains per hour between Paddington and Whitechapel during peak times. It is estimated that Crossrail will generate at least 75,000 business opportunities and support the equivalent of 55,000 full time jobs right around the UK. It is a very impressive piece of civil engineering, and one of the largest projects of its kind in the world.

It is not often that the local area gets used as the location for a film; we have had Thamesmead and the old Bexley College tower (now demolished to make way for a new housing estate) used as locations for the cult E4 TV show “Misfits”, but to my knowledge the last time the area was used for a major feature film was back in September 1970 to April 1971, when Stanley Kubrick used Tavy Bridge in Thamesmead as the main location for much of “A Clockwork Orange”. Since then things have been quiet. Last year that changed, when the producers of the newly released feature film “London Road” used locations in Lower Belvedere, Thamesmead and Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere as locations for the film musical based on the 2006 Ipswich prostitute murders. “London Road” uses verbatim testimony  from residents to show how they came together to rebuild their world after five women were killed in the Suffolk town in 2006. It is based on the award-winning stage production at the National Theatre. The film stars actress Olivia Colman (who I have seen on stage playing “Minka”, the psychopathic Polish secretary in the excellent BBC Radio 4 sitcom “Hut 33”). Colman said of the film: “It’s actually about a group of people who heal themselves. I think people have a preconception that the musical is about death and murder but that’s not what it is about. It’s about a community who have got the world’s press looking at them and decide to make themselves better. Learning the verbatim script — including all the “ums” and “ers” of conversation — was much harder than a normal one. But having been fearful of it and close to tears at times, I'd say it was one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling jobs I've ever had. It also means the words audiences hear are what people genuinely said and were not “twisted”. These are real people, with no filter, being terribly honest”. She also had to sing in the film, which was not something that she had done before: “I used to sing at school. I can hold a tune, but I’m not under any impression I’m a proper singer. It was really scary, but lovely. It’s a fascinating story that most of us remember from the news.” Colman said it was a weird project compared with “shoot-em-up” movies or rom-coms, but added: “I think film-lovers will love this film. It is absolutely original.” You can see a trailer for the film below. The sequence in the church hall was filmed in All Saint’s Church Hall in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere (NOT “Nuxley Village” as some call it – there is no such place – the erroneous name is the result of lazy estate agents who made up the name, and do not live in the area, or know the long history of it), and “London Road” itself was replicated by using Sutherland Road in Lower Belvedere, not far from Belvedere Railway Station. Film critic Mark Kermode reviews the film here - and he loved it.