Thanks very much to professional journalist and documentary maker Russell for the photo above - click on it to see a larger version. It shows one of the new digital post boxes that I described recently in a previous blog update, that are being rolled out around the UK to replace the traditional street letter boxes that have been in place in some cases for over 100 years or more. The new digital post boxes can accept small to medium sized parcels in addition to letters and other envelopes. They have an inbuilt bar code scanner and are solar powered. The post box in the photograph above is located in Yarnton Way, near the junction of Harrow Manor Way in Thamesmead. I find also interesting is that the post box has been modified from an existing model, rather than completely replaced. This can be seen by the inscription EIIR on the front access door, which indicates it was originally installed during the reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II. If it was all brand new, I would expect the inscription to read CIIIR for Charles III.
Russell also brought the following story to my attention. He tells me that he is a regular traveller via London City Airport in East London, And the following information is on display both in the airport and via a link on their website. The airport wishes to change the approach angle of aeroplanes landing there in the future. They say that this is to enable a wider variety of passenger jets and propeller planes to take off and land at the airport, in the publicity material, it also states that this will save greenhouse gases and noise. Personally, I think there is an element of spin in this as aeroplanes landing or taking off at a more shallow angle of descent and ascent will mean that they are flying lower over residential areas on their approach or departure from the airport. As many local residents will be aware, many aeroplanes approaching London City Airport from the East, which includes much of the the traffic from Europe currently follow the River Thames prior to landing. In our area this means that Crayford, Slade Green, Erith, Lower and Upper Belvedere, Abbey Wood, Thamesmead, Plumstead and Woolwich would all be potentially affected by lower flying passenger aircraft over a very large residential area. Whether this would actually affect local residents quality of life is uncertain at the time of writing, but is certainly something that needs to be considered. The publicity material for the change in approach and departure protocols for London City Airport includes the following statements. I make no claims to the veracity or accuracy of them, I'm just reporting them verbatim:- "Additional final approach procedures allow more new-generation aircraft - London City Airport has a steep final approach to both runways compared with other British airports. This 5.5° approach works very well, but constrains the types of aircraft able to operate here. Most British airports use 3° to 3.5°. This airspace change would add a new final approach descent angle of 4.49°, which is shallower by 1.01°, to each runway. Doing this will encourage a quicker transition to new generation, efficient, larger capacity aircraft such as the Airbus A320neo. No change to where aircraft would fly, fewer flights in the long-term. This airspace change would not change where aircraft fly, either arriving at, or departing from, London City Airport. It would only change the aircraft types able to use LCY, the “fleet mix”, as the airport’s traffic continues to grow. The number of flights would increase more slowly while still allowing more people to use the airport, because there would be more passengers per flight than today. Under this proposal there would be 76,500 fewer flights over the long-term, with 14m more passengers compared with doing nothing. The fleet mix would change, instead of an increase in smaller aircraft there would be a slower increase including larger aircraft using the shallower approach. The majority of the fleet mix would still be the smaller aircraft flying the unchanged steeper approach. Improved overall noise - The addition of larger new-generation aircraft to the fleet mix means fewer flights are needed (compared with our growth without this change). We can move faster towards our planning limit of 9 million passengers per year, increasing the business and leisure opportunities for the city and benefitting economic growth. At the same time, this long-term reduction in flights compared with doing nothing would mean almost 112,000 people would experience reduced daytime noise (more than the city of Worcester), and more than 10,000 would experience reduced early-morning noise (i.e. 0630-0700) compared with doing nothing over the longer term. In almost all cases, the overflight noise differences between the A320neo and the other types using LCY would not be noticeable. Improved greenhouse gas emissions, no impact on air quality - The addition of more new-generation aircraft to our fleet would save over 18,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with doing nothing. Aircraft-related air quality in the region would not be changed by this proposal, nor would tranquillity or biodiversity impacts. Overall benefit- The change in fleet would make LCY more attractive to customers in our catchment, who would save time travelling to us instead of to other London airports. The total economic benefit for this airspace change is expected to be between £38.4m - £97.4m net present value (NPV) over the 12-year appraisal period. Timeline - If the project proceeds as planned, our application is successful, and the airspace regulator (CAA) decides to approve, the change would take place in January 2027 at the earliest. Why your views matter - This consultation is your opportunity to comment on the proposed changes. We want to ensure that anyone who could be affected – positively or negatively – is aware of the proposals and has the chance to provide feedback". You can read more about the proposed changes, and provide your own feedback by clicking here.
Representatives from the National Lottery appeared several times during last week in Bexleyheath Broadway. Ostensibly this was to promote the sale of lottery tickets, but it also had another purpose. Last October a lottery ticket with all six winning numbers was purchased by somebody resident in the London Borough of Bexley. At the time of writing this prize money which amounts to approximately £10.6 million remains unclaimed. The owner of the ticket has till early April to present the ticket and claim the money, otherwise it will be distributed to good causes sponsored by the lottery operator. I am normally quite sceptical about gambling on things such as the National Lottery as the statistical chances of winning an appreciable prize are microscopically small. It would appear in this case somebody has bucked the odds, and can claim a life-changing amount of money. The numbers on the winning ticket are 06, 08, 12, 33, 49, 59 which came up in the draw on the 4th of October 2025. The owner of the ticket has until the 2nd of April 2026 to make a valid claim before the ticket expires.
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Thanks to a regular reader and occasional contributor who wishes to remain anonymous for the two photographs above. Click on either one to see a larger view. They show the works being undertaken by Thames Water to repair leaking drains and pipe work underneath the pedestrian pathway that approaches Erith Railway Station. I have been told by commuters and other people who use the station that the works have been under way since January, and show no signs of completion. Currently visitors to the station have to approach on foot via Walnut Tree Road, cut through the grounds of Bexley College and underneath the road bridge of the Bronze Age Way fly over. Local councillors Nicola Taylor and Chris Ball are escalating matters with the Thames Water project manager as the diversion to station users adds considerably to their journey times. What also concerns me is that I know that there are medium to long-term plans to remove the pedestrian foot tunnel currently used as a means of travellers going from Erith Town Centre to Erith Station. It would appear that the current actions to repair the Thames Water drains and pipe work are a necessary evil, but it does highlight how easily access to one of the prime public transport resources available in the town can easily be disrupted.
Yet another technology anniversary has arrived. A company that until this point forty two years ago which was known for producing cheap (and pretty nasty) home all – in – one stereo (not really hifi) systems decided that they wanted a slice of the home computing pie that was being dominated by Sinclair (the ZX Spectrum) Commodore (The C64) and Acorn (the BBC Micro). The company was Amstrad, who at the time had no history in making computers. Chairman Alan Sugar (way before Sir Alan, and even further from Lord) had noticed what a commercial success affordable computers were having in both the UK and beyond, and with his business head firmly on, he told his design team that they needed to create a computer that had the following properties:- 1) It had to be an “all – in – one” unit, with a cassette deck or floppy drive, and a monitor included (Sugar cleverly realised that many of the computers would get used in a bedroom. Back in the day, not very many children had their own TV, and a machine that would have to be connected to the family TV in the lounge might not get much use, as Mum and Dad would want to watch Coronation Street, and not have a home computer taking up their precious telly). 2) It had to be made from cheap, easily sourced components, to keep the price down. 3) There had to be a large quantity of high quality, affordable software available for the computer on the day of public launch. Unusually for a computer of the period, the design of the case was finalised before the internal architecture had even been decided. Alan Sugar made sure that a large number of functional prototypes were given to software development houses, so that they could get cracking with writing software for the machine prior to the launch date. The actual electronic design of the computer was outsourced to a number of contractors, many of which were based in the Cambridge area. There was a false start when one supplier had a nervous breakdown and handed back their advance fee for writing the computers firmware. Another company was found, and the Amstrad CPC 464 (cassette deck) and 664 (floppy drive) models were launched on time, with a pile of good quality software available on day one, just has Alan Sugar had promised. The prices were keen too. A CPC 464 could be had with a green screen monitor for £249, or with a full colour screen for £359 – a bargain when you consider that a colour monitor alone could cost around £200 in 1984 prices. The 664 model with the unusual 3” Hitachi floppy disk drive, accompanied by an 80 column green screen monitor became a very popular first computer for many small businesses. Accounting, purchase and sales ledger, spreadsheet and word processing software was produced for the machine, and much of it was of exceedingly high quality for the period, and the relative limitations of the Zilog Z80 eight bit processor architecture. The CPC range sold very well indeed; in fact in the late 1980’s the Amstrad brand was one of the few computer companies to survive the great computer crash. Even former giants like Sinclair were forced to go cap in hand to Amstrad; Alan Sugar bought all of Sinclair’s intellectual property and assets for a bargain price of £5 million. Three years earlier, Sinclair had been valued at in excess of £200 million. Amstrad expanded their range of computers to include the dedicated word processor and printer bundle called the PCW 8256, which was incredibly successful, shipping eight million units worldwide from 1985 to 1989. The print quality from its’ dot matrix printer was not very good, but the word processing “LocoScript” software was excellent – very easy to use, and quite powerful considering the rock bottom price. Many former, self confessed “technophobes” were introduced to computing by the PCW 8256, and the machines were in popular use for many years after they went out of production.
Unfortunately I have a bit of an announcement to make. It all gets quite complicated, so I will try and break it down. Until very recently I have worked all of my life, my first job being aged 15 as a Saturday assistant at what was then the leading independent computer dealer in the UK, the Sidcup based Silica Shop. After this I had a number of full-time jobs where I paid my tax and National Insurance, and have always contributed towards society, including volunteering for a number of charities in my spare time. It is only within the last year that the situation has changed. As I know many readers are fully aware. I was blue-lighted into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich last July with Atrial Fibrillation heart failure and a number of other associated conditions, including Thyrotoxicosis and suspected Haemochromatosis, all of which were attributed to genetic problems and not down to diet or lifestyle. I am also now being tested for possible serious issues with my Gall Bladder and Bile Duct, after being cleared of a Thyroid Cancer scare. I am now housebound and unable to walk more than a few metres. Since late last year I have been forced to apply for, and be granted sickness benefits - indeed I have now been classified as too ill and disabled to search for work, and I'm now completely reliant on the state for financial support. In February I received an email from the very impressive sounding Press Association, claiming that I owed them a very large amount of money due to alleged copyright infringements on four photographs that had appeared on the Blog over the years. Even though I communicated quite clearly that I am ill and receiving state benefits, I was unable to pay the huge amounts that they demanded. To clarify, I regularly receive photographs and images from readers and contributors to the Maggot Sandwich. I always do the utmost to check that there are no copyright notices or digital watermarks on the photos that would attribute them to somebody else. I do my best with due diligence, but with very limited resources available to me. I was in contact with the Press Association, I explained the circumstances and that the images were used in good faith, and there was no evidence of intentional copyright infringement. I also explained that I had been running the Maggot Sandwich as an unpaid volunteer for nearly 20 years as a news, current affairs and local history online magazine. I receive no advertising, sponsorship or financial support at all, and it is purely run as a local community service and a hobby for me. Unfortunately, the Press Association have so far ignored this information. They have also emailed me when I have been unavailable due to hospital visits. Prior to applying for benefits, I had burned through my rainy day savings account, as I did not want to get involved with the benefits system if I could possibly avoid it, but it has got to the point when I have no choice. It is possible that the Press Association may now approach Blogger, the Google-owned company who run the platform on which the Maggot Sandwich operates. I suspect if they do this then Blogger may shut the Maggot Sandwich down. If this does happen, I will need to relaunch the blog under a new title, and with a new identity. They might also get bailiffs to come to my house, although there is very little that they could take, and in reality the cost of doing this would far exceed the amount of money that they were trying to obtain from me. I had hoped that this whole unsavoury issue could be resolved without bringing it to the attention of my readers, but since it is now getting to the stage where it may affect the production of the Blog, I felt that it was only right that you should be brought into the picture. In the greater scheme of things, the amount of money involved is relatively small as far as they are concerned, and I'm hopeful they will understand this. I would be grateful for your thoughts on this, and any recommendations that you may have for other actions that I should take under the circumstances. Comments, thoughts and advice to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
The end video this week comes from Dartford Borough Council. It illustrates their bid to become The town of culture for Kent 2028. It illustrates some of the positive aspects of Dartford that should be emphasised when looking at what the town has done in the past to highlight and emphasise the local level of arts and culture. Obviously the largest contribution would be to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who historically met on Dartford Station. There are many other artistic and creative people who have contributed towards the town. hugh.neal@gmail.com.
