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FIVE and a half million (one in eleven people in the UK) have had a parcel lost or stolen in the last year, new research by Citizens Advice finds. In addition, over 20 million people (36% of all UK adults) have received a ‘Sorry you were out’ card despite being home, resulting in some parcels being left in insecure places like doorsteps and bins. The charity, which is the consumer advocate for the postal sector, is warning that the parcels market needs an end-to-end overhaul. Citizens Advice found: In a single week, almost 7 million people (13% of all UK adults) experienced a parcel issue relating to driver pressure. This included the driver leaving before the customer could get to the door, or leaving the parcel in an insecure place like a doorstep or bin. In a single week, almost 3 million people (6% of all UK adults) missed a parcel because they didn’t have time to get to the door. This figure rises to 8% for people who are disabled or have a long term health condition and 9% of parents with young children Despite these high figures,redress systems - like compensation - can be difficult to access. One in three consumers who had an issue said they took no action as they didn’t think it’d make a difference. The majority of delivery companies receive no penalty for lost or stolen deliveries. Currently only Royal Mail is subject to fines if this happens, despite 58% of parcels being delivered by other companies. Consumers tend to have no choice over who their parcel company is, with that choice being made by the retailer. As a result, consumers face a lottery when it comes to fixing problems or getting compensated for lateness or loss. Matthew Upton, Director of Policy, said: “When it comes to parcel deliveries, the choice is in the hands of the retailers, not the receiver. So when we find our parcels under a bush or behind our bins, it's easy to lay the blame at the door of individual hard working drivers. But the reality is that these failings are baked into the system. Over - worked drivers, no routes to compensation and a lack of penalties for poor service equals a lack of meaningful consumer protection". Citizens Advice is calling for an end-to-end overhaul for the parcels market and suggests the following action: 1. Increased penalties: All delivery firms should face penalties for losing parcels: Currently, only Royal Mail faces a fine if a parcel is lost or stolen. Ofcom should extend penalties to all delivery firms to make sure that they take appropriate measures to keep mail safe 2. Easier compensation: It should be easier for consumers to get compensation for late or lost deliveries: Redress systems are complicated. Nine out of ten people (88%) that attempted to resolve an issue experienced challenges. Ofcom should extend consumer protection rules to cover all delivery companies, not just Royal Mail. 3. Drivers need better protections: Drivers’ employment conditions are often insecure, with unstable incomes and unpredictable hours. These can lead to poor practices like leaving before consumers get to the door. The remit of the newly announced Single Enforcement Body should be widened to include the power to determine working status. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
Regular readers may recall that back in March 2024 I wrote at some length about the very unwelcome and unfortunate permanent closure of the Gravesend to Tilbury river ferry. The reason for this was that the ferry had to be subsidised by both Kent County Council and Thurrock Council in Essex. Unfortunately funding was cut and the ferry was unable to continue. Its vital service across the River Thames. It would appear that things are now changing for the better, and there is now every likelihood that the ferry service will recommence at some point yet to be determined. The reasons for the service being resumed are many, including the results of public petition which garnered thousands of signatures supporting the return of the service and more recently, the fact that Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised his support in restoring the ferry. This support would appear to be more than just words, as the Prime Minister made a statement during a recent Prime Ministers question time. He said - "On the day I became Labour leader I visited and I saw where the ferry link used to go across the head of the river and of course critical connectivity for her constituents. I do not think it is acceptable that a link that used to be there just gets abandoned and it goes. I will work hard with her to find ways of bringing that service back supported by number 10 North. She has got my word on that". It will be instructive to see if this goodwill actually turns into reality. I suppose that one can but hope.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the first effective implementation of radio. A great deal of the work to make radio communication possible was down to one visionary man. Guglielmo Marconi was a 22-year-old technology genius, who, stung by the lack of interest in his work in his homeland, moved to a new country to develop his ideas. Whilst born and educated in Italy, he only really made a name for himself when he emigrated to the UK. In a single year, this individual extended the performance of a key, then brand new technology by a factor of more than 20. It sounds like an outlandish tale even by modern Silicon Valley standards, but by the end of 1901, had pushed the range of wireless communications from just over 80 miles (128 km) to 2,000 (3,220 km). Marconi’s breakthrough turned conventions about the then-new wireless technology on its head, earning him a joint Nobel Prize for Physics nine years later. If one technology dominated the early 20th century, it was wireless – thanks largely to Marconi. Before TV, Marconi's work established wireless as the world’s first mass medium, trouncing the long established electric telegraph and replacing print in many areas. He facilitated the spread of communications, entertainment, politics and propaganda around the globe in a fast-modernising world of motor-driven cars, and propeller-powered aircraft. Long-range wireless transmissions made the oceans a safer place, too, allowing ships to stay in touch with the land long after they had journeyed over the horizon. Marconi’s work also allowed the development of the SOS signal – and his company received the first one in 1910. Contrary to popular opinion, Marconi did not invent radio – that was a chap called Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist. Marconi did massively increase the transmission range, efficiency and sensitivity of radio designs. Marconi was fortunate in that he came from a wealthy family who not only owned a lot of land, but were also part of the Jameson whiskey distilling dynasty. Marconi set up a wireless transmitting and receiving station in Poldhu, South East Cornwall – a location picked as it was very close to the Atlantic, and the ships that traversed it – at that time Marconi believed that the main use of wireless would be for ship to ship, and ship to shore communications. In June 1901, Poldhu communicated with a station at Crookhaven in County Cork, 225 miles away. In September, high winds blew down the masts, but that wasn’t going to stop Marconi making history. With a temporary pair of 160-foot masts he set off for Newfoundland in Canada to receive transmission of the first transatlantic wireless signal – from those masts. On the 9th December, he used cable telegraphy to ask his team to start sending signals. On the 12th December 1901, he heard their reply: an "SSS" in Morse. Wireless radio communications had crossed the Atlantic, and further tests found that Poldhu’s range could exceed 2,000 miles. January 1903 saw the first transmission from the US, from American President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII. This may have been the first example of poorly timed international calls due to time differences; Poldhu received the message at night, after the post office in the nearby village of Mullion had closed, so it didn’t get through to the king until the next morning. How times change.
The photo above was taken back in September 2018, not very long before the Belvedere Hotel and pub located at the bottom of Picardy Road, Belvedere was permanently closed, prior to being extended and converted into apartments. This former pub has some very historic connections, and actually has quite a grim back story. Back in 1864 there were two commercial gunpowder factories – that of John Hall and Son and the Elterwater and Lowood Gunpowder Company situated on the marsh land that at that time existed parallel to the River Thames between Slade Green in the East and Plumstead in the West. Both factories were physically isolated from residential areas, and many precautions were taken to prevent any kind of fire; workers had to wear felt slippers, and all equipment was made of wood, or lined with copper to prevent sparks; understandably smoking was strictly prohibited. At about 6.40 am on Saturday the first of October 1864 all these precautions proved worthless, when there was a massive explosion which totally destroyed both gunpowder factories, their store magazines and a couple of barges that were being loaded with barrels of gunpowder at the time. No contemporary account exists of exactly what caused the accident, as the eyewitnesses were instantly vapourised. The explosion was heard as far away as Cambridge, and the shock wave was so intense that people in central London were convinced that there had been an earthquake. One report at the time said that as rescuers hurried to the site they found a massive crater and absolutely no signs of any buildings were left - “it was if the place had been swept clean by a broom”. Surprisingly there were only around twenty casualties, as though the explosion was huge, the remote location prevented greater loss of life. Witnesses said that a huge pall of black smoke, shaped like a mushroom hung in the air for an hour afterwards. Five of the victims were classed as “missing” as nothing remained of them to bury. Others whose bodies remained intact to some degree or other were taken to The Belvedere Hotel in Picardy Road, which was converted into a temporary morgue. The injured were taken to Guy’s Hospital at London Bridge, where some then succumbed to their injuries. The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times (the story made world headlines) also curiously reported that a man escaped serious injury, but did have “his right whisker blown off, and he has not been seen since”. The unknown reporter then comments “The damage done to property extends to a radius of over twenty miles; the effect upon domestic animals is said to have been very remarkable. Thousands of pets succumbed with fright – the mortality to Canaries being particularly great”. The army was called from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich to assist with emergency repairs to the river wall, which had been destroyed to a length of three hundred yards from the epicentre of the blast. Fortunately the tide was low at the time, and the Royal Engineers assisted by civilian navvies and some volunteers barely managed to temporarily block the gap before the tide rose. Had they not, much of Lower Belvedere would have been flooded as later happened in 1953. Considering the size of the explosion – it is estimated that something between 45 and 100 tons of gunpowder were detonated, the long term damage was pretty light, though the superintendent of Crossness Pumping Station did put in a grumpy claim for £150 for plate glass that had been damaged by the blast – this sounds like some very creative accounting on his part, as the works was still being constructed at the time; the windows had yet to be installed, and the works did not actually go into operation until nearly a year later.
The end video this week involves a Police action to combat illegal E-Scooters and drug dealers in and around Dartford. Comments and feedback as always to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
