Licence?

Historically, the area to the North of the London Borough of Bexley, especially in Lower Belvedere, Erith, Slade Green and Crayford has been the home to a number of light, medium and heavy engineering manufacturing companies of all sorts of descriptions. Over the last few decades, this has become less of a case, and much of the land previously used by our factories and engineering works has been converted into residential spaces. As I wrote last week, the historic and previously very successful BATT electrical and communications cable manufacturing works located in a prominent position in the major Fraser Road, industrial estate recently declared itself insolvent. Thanks to a couple of vigilant readers, it would seem that prior to the company going bust, it was in negotiations to sell the Fraser Road site for redevelopment as a new industrial estate, although from what I can understand there was a website publishing this but it was very much unknown, including to myself. It makes me wonder whether the company was looking to sell the site to try and pay off some of its outstanding debts, although I don't know anything for certain, and I can only surmise under the circumstances. The developer comments online:- "Following the decision by Batt Cables to relocate, Newlands Developments is bringing forward proposals to redevelop their industrial former site on Fraser Road, a key employment location in Erith. Our vision is to create a modern, high-quality employment hub that will secure the site’s future, deliver sustainable economic growth, and significantly increase the number of jobs available for local people". One of the things that does concern me is that many of the buildings on the site have historical interest and predate BATT cables by some decades. In fact, if one looks at the main entrance of the facility and looks towards the left, there is a very large brick built warehouse that was constructed in 1907 to be used by the then Maxim machine gun works which was then located on the site. This is actually one of the reasons why that particular part of Erith is known locally as the Pom Pom, as behind the warehouse building, there was a large gun range where various weapons manufactured in the factory were tested prior to delivery to military clients. One of those weapons was a 20 mm marine cannon, which had a very large boom boom sound when fired which was used to informally name the local area as a result of the noise. I have no idea whether the building has any kind of local listing or other historical preservation, but I would like to see it remain in some form or another. I know that there have been some debates online and with the local Council in the recent past about the future of the Europa industrial estate to the East of the BATT cable works for some years, as many of the industrial units are currently unoccupied, and there has been a conversation about converting these into residential properties. I think that over the course of time, this is pretty much inevitable, but no details are available at the time of writing. It is sad to see the cable company going through so many difficulties, and I gather that they are currently looking for a corporate buyer, but the outcome of this is still unclear and undetermined. As always, I do rely on readers to supply me with information on subjects such as this, as I certainly don't know everything. This is even more the case is, as many people already know. I'm currently still housebound and cannot physically go out and investigate these things myself in person, as much as I would like to.

Over the last few months there have been a lot of complaints from local residents about the level and regularity of roadworks in the local area. It seems that especially Slade Green, Crayford, and Erith have been the subject of much in the way of road disruption. From what I can understand it would appear that it is not just the level of roadworks. It is the fact that they go unannounced, and just go ahead despite any inconvenience or disruption to local residents. They are all meant to be announced locally and they tend to publish the planning announcements via the local Council in the News Shopper free newspaper. Unfortunately, many people do not get this any more and the News Shopper website mainly sits behind a paywall, which people cannot access more than a handful of stories without paying an extortionate fee. The website is also full of clickbait and advertising. That is of no interest to people who wish to find out about the local news. This kills the level of interest in the website and thus basically hides the planning applications which have had their box ticked in terms of announcement, but in reality nobody really knows anything about them.  One of the main problems with the level of roadworks is that several companies require access to carry out works, but they do not seem to consult with each other; instead, they just dig up the road causing further disruption and often carry out work that could have been done when the previous contractor was on the site, and had already dug a hole in the road. Readers may not be aware that I am a qualified project manager. Whilst I have mainly worked - prior my illness - in IT, my qualification covers me for general project management disciplines. One of the principles of project management is to co-ordinate and communicate with other organisations to ensure that disruption to other interested parties is kept to a minimum. With the case of our local roads, this does not appear to happen. I know why this occurs. It is because each organisation has its own agenda and budget, and does not really give a stuff about the other companies that may require access to utilities such as electricity, gas and water that are buried in the local roads. This is a fundamental failing. One of the first duties of a project manager is to ensure disruption is kept to an utter minimum. Not only this, their duties are to communicate to all parties as to the situation and the progress of any works. Yet again, this does not happen locally. Bexley Council delegate work to the contractors hired by the utility companies, but it would appear that they do not take responsibility for what happens thereafter. Responsibility and communication are two of the most important skills for anybody managing any kind of project involving third parties, members of the public and other involved organisations. It would seem that as far as local civil engineering works are concerned, they appear to just wash their hands of things and let the contractors get on with it. This may well be down to a lack of resources and finance, but it also shows a lack of responsibility and ownership. Your thoughts would be appreciated on this subject.

As anybody who has known me for any length of time, I am probably the least sporty person that you could ever meet. I've never been interested in team sports such as football, cricket or rugby, and whilst at school I used to try and find any excuse to get out of them. Fortunately, when I was at school there was an option when you entered the sixth form to try individual sports such as judo, dinghy sailing, and fencing. I was never particularly good any of these, but I found them far more enjoyable than running around a muddy field getting puffed out. Nowadays, most sports have no interest for me, although I do appreciate that many people follow and enjoy them greatly. And I have absolutely no problem with this. It's just not for me. One thing I do watch, which personally I would not count as a sport and more as a game - as you don't get physically involved is snooker. I have been watching The Masters snooker competition on the television over the last few days, and I tend to agree with a commentator who did say at one point some time ago that snooker is chess with physics. Bearing in mind, I'm a keen chess player - if not particularly good, I do find this analogy quite applicable. One thing that has struck me about a number of very popular sports such as horse racing, Formula 1 and snooker is that one does not see professional women players, which I cannot understand. All three of these particular sports could be easily practiced on an equal level with male competitors, yet at the time of writing this does not seem to be the case. Personally, I fail to understand why. If anybody can enlighten me, then please do let me know. Comments to me at hugh,neal@gmail.com.

The photo above shows Erith High Street and the old Odeon cinema - (click here to see some photos of the building in its heyday); it was taken back in the spring of 1966, not long before the row of shops was demolished - the giveaway is the name of the film being shown at the cinema. The film "Life at the Top" was released in the UK in March 1966; it was the sequel to the film "Room at the Top". The plot can be summarised as "Joe Lampton thought he had really made it by marrying the boss's daughter in his northern mill town. But he finds he is being sidelined at work and his private life manipulated by his father-in-law. Even so, he ignores an offer of a job in London and keeps away from attractive TV presenter Norah. When he finds his wife is having an affair, he reconsiders on both counts. But can he make it on his own ability down south?" Anyway, the photo is pretty precisely dated, and may be one of the last taken before demolition began. No building in the photo is still standing, though the Odeon did survive the demolition ball at least until 1999, when it was demolished to make way for a block of flats and offices.

There has been much recent coverage in both the print press and online about the ongoing problems being experienced by the BBC. This does not just include serious behavioural issues from certain members of staff that have been widely reported. It has also been announced that for the very first time in history that more British people watch YouTube than watch BBC television. To be honest, this does not surprise me in the slightest. Just to clarify my situation before I continue, I do pay for a BBC television licence at the current time, although I may well review this decision in the future, as I hardly use the BBC services I currently pay for, or indeed watch live television. It has been announced in the last couple of days that the BBC intend to publish a lot of their their television shows on YouTube, and to also publish live content such as news and sports. Whether this will be in addition to, or replacement of the BBC iPlayer is currently unclear. News reports also state that over 300,000 people around the UK have cancelled their television licence in the last year. To clarify, there is still a very widely held and unfortunately erroneous view that It is a legal requirement for British people to own a TV licence if they own a television, whatever you watch. This is factually incorrect. One needs a TV licence only if you watch any live TV channel, record any live TV or use BBC iPlayer. Currently if you exclusively use streaming services and non - live content such as YouTube, Vimeo, Netflix, ITVX, Amazon Prime, Disney+, or Apple TV - amongst others, but do not watch any live TV channel or record live TV to watch later, or use BBC iPlayer, you quite legally do not require a TV licence. The BBC are extremely aware of how unpopular the licence fee is, and how people are migrating to subscription streaming services, including, but not limited to the aforementioned ones. BBC management are conscious that if they migrated to a subscription service, or alternatively took advertising, they would lose a huge amount of the revenue that they are currently guaranteed. By posting live and current BBC content onto to YouTube, the BBC are trying to monetise it by the back door, by saying that if you watch YouTube you must have a TV licence. In the video below, legal expert and King's Counsel Daniel Shensmith, otherwise known as the Black Belt Barrister explains this in greater detail, and the potential legal and political implications if this change goes ahead. Comments and feedback to me as usual at hugh.neal@gmail.com.