The Exchange.

After a somewhat quiet period, things seem to be getting under way with the new organisation that have taken over the old Carnegie Library site in Walnut Tree Road. The group, called The Exchange have a number of ambitious plans for Erith and the surrounding area. They recently made the following announcement:-“The Exchange invite proposals from practitioners with ideas to transform London’s longest pier into a piece of art for the period of the Totally Thames Festival 2017. An opportunity for artists, designers, architects, performers, curators, and creatives to submit proposals for London's newest and most unique public art space. We are inviting proposals for a site-specific work based on Erith Pier throughout a three-week period in September 2017 that will coincide with the Totally Thames Festival and the Lighthouse Project. This is a unique opportunity for practitioners to have a significant new work programmed during a world-renowned festival. The commissioned practitioner will be awarded a budget of £8,000 to fully realise their idea for the pier.  The budget is to include all artistic, operational, installation and logistical costs of the work. There will be a workshop for practitioners interested in applying for the inaugural Pier Commission at Bexleyheath Archives on Thursday 6th July 5pm to 7pm, where Bexley Local Studies and Archives Manager Simon McKeon will talk through the history of Erith including the pier, Erith's industrial and pleasure resort history using a variety of visual and documentary material from the archives.  The workshop is free to attend, and artists will have an opportunity to look through the archives close at hand, booking prior to the event is essential". You can apply for a free place at the event by clicking here. I will be meeting with the people behind The Exchange shortly, and I hope to work with them on some of their community oriented projects in the future. It is apparent that investment is coming to the area after a long period of the area being relatively underfunded and ignored.

I have noticed something rather strange recently; in several locations in the local area I have encountered large streams of analogue magnetic recording tape in the road and on the pavement. The tape blows around in the wind and makes a hell of a mess. When I investigated, I found that the tape originated from fly tipped VHS video cassettes that had been broken open by persons unknown, allowing the tape inside to escape. What mystified me further was that this happened in more than one location, seemingly at around the same time. I witnessed it in James Watt Way Erith, Bexley Road in Northumberland Heath and in Avenue Road in Bexleyheath. It would seem that someone is dumping large quantities of old video cassettes in the roads of the area. This is somewhat mystifying, especially as the cassettes I saw dumped in Avenue Road were of the rarer Betamax variety. I had thought that most video cassettes of both VHS and Betamax technologies had long since disappeared – as far as I am aware, even the charity shops stopped taking analogue video cassettes some years ago. I am surprised that there were any left to be dumped.  I doubt that the kids that had broken open the tape cassettes had any idea of the history of the two video formats, or indeed of the format war which raged for several years. Something that might quite surprise you is that the price of old Betamax video recorders is currently going through the roof; a couple of years ago you could not give one away if you tried. Suddenly they are turning up on eBay and the bidding competition is fierce. Prices of £250 and upwards have been noted. What is the reason for this? Well, it does not seem to be down to any love for the outdated video format (which whilst it failed in the domestic home market, it was the cornerstone of many TV news and outside broadcast units for many years). It would appear that people are coming across family videos recorded on Betamax cassettes and wish to digitise them. Most professional video transfer services can handle VHS and the common broadcast formats, but very few are capable of doing anything with a Betamax format cassette. People with old recordings of weddings and family events realise that if they wish to be able to see them again, they will need to locate a device capable of playing the tape format - hence the sudden upsurge of interest. The ironic thing is, it is pretty likely that the tapes will be unwatchable even when a suitable player is used. Both Betamax and VHS cassettes deteriorate over time, even when stored in ideal conditions. A thirty year old video tape will have demagnetised and printed through so much that it will almost certainly show on screen as a mess of flickering static with a few undersaturated, ghostly images of what remains of the original recording now.  I recently have read quite a lot about the format wars between VHS and Betamax back in the early 1980's. From all that I have read, it became apparent that Sony, the creators of the Beta format were pretty much to blame for the demise of what initially was a far technically superior video format than the relatively pedestrian VHS system. The main determining factor between Betamax and VHS was the cost of the recorders and length of recording time. Betamax was, in theory, a superior recording format over VHS due to resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines), slightly superior sound, and a more stable image; Betamax recorders were also of higher quality construction. But these differences were negligible to consumers, and thus did not justify either the extra cost of a Betamax VCR (which was often significantly more expensive than a VHS equivalent) or Betamax's shorter recording time. JVC, which designed the VHS technology, licensed it to any manufacturer that was interested. The manufacturers then competed against each other for sales, resulting in lower prices to the consumer. Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax initially and so was not pressured to reduce prices. Only in the early 1980s did Sony decide to licence Betamax technology to other manufacturers, such as Toshiba and Sanyo. What Sony did not take into account was what consumers wanted. While Betamax was believed to be the superior format in the minds of the public and press (due to excellent marketing by Sony), consumers wanted an affordable video recorder (a VHS machine was often around a hundred pounds less than an equivalent Betamax one); Sony believed that having better quality recordings was the key to success, and that consumers would be willing to pay a higher retail price for this, whereas it soon became clear that consumer desire was focused more intently on longer recording time, lower retail price, and compatibility with other machines for cassette sharing (as VHS was becoming the format in the majority of homes). The real Betamax killer was that for the first few years, the maximum length of recording was limited to one hour on Betamax, whereas VHS could stretch to four hours with reduced image quality, critically long enough to record an entire American football game - the lucrative mass American market both systems were looking to crack. Sony had the attitude of "We know best" as to what the market wanted, and ignored requests for features that quickly became standard with their competitors. Consequently Betamax is now considered alongside the 8 - Track cartridge as a dodo technology. You can read about the history of the video format war by clicking here. If you are of the opinion that Betamax is far too mainstream, well known and commonplace, do yourself a favour by visiting the Philips V2000 web site here. You can also read more about other format wars by clicking here.

If there is one things that can symbolise the difference between Bexley Council and neighbouring Greenwich Council it is the way in which they look after their parks and open spaces. This can be exemplified if one takes a ride on the 99 bus along Woolwich Road. First you pass by the Upper Belvedere Recreation Ground, which earlier this week looked like a jungle – weeds were rife and it was apparent that the grass had not been mowed for at least several months. When one continues on to Bostall Heath, over the border in Greenwich. This is immaculately mowed and evidently very well looked after. I don’t think very much more needs to be said on the subject.

Word reaches me that the Bexley Growth consultation event held in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre last Saturday was as predicted, little more than a “box ticking exercise”. The event was designed to let locals offer their opinions on the proposed growth strategy for the London Borough of Bexley over the next three decades. The consultation roadshow has been located in public areas around the borough over the last few weeks, and the appearance in Erith had been scheduled to be open from 12 until 4pm on Saturday June the 10th. My informant tells me that the stand was being taken down at 1.30pm, only ninety minutes after the event had started, and two and a half hours before it was due to end. I cannot say that I am very surprised by this – I had intended to visit the roadshow after my return from a shopping trip to Bexleyheath, but when I arrived back in Erith, of the consultation stall and staff there was no sign. It seems obvious to me and others that Bexley Council were making a charade of the whole public consultation – they are not interested in what local residents want; they already have their minds made up as to what we are going to get. Having said that, some of the idea put forward do seem like a very good idea – the proposal to extend the River Thames walkway to run all of the way from the Isle of Grain to Woolwich uninterrupted is an example of one improvement scheme that I for one would wholeheartedly support. The basic premise of the Bexley Growth Strategy is defined thus:- “A new neighbourhood will be created in Belvedere growing out from a potential new Crossrail station, accommodating more than 8,000 homes focussed on a public transport interchange and a new town centre that will include a luxury outlet shopping destination, with the area generating up to 3,500 new jobs. Erith will provide the opportunity to deliver an exciting and well-connected urban riverfront destination of at least 6,000 new homes, with the area supporting over 2,000 new jobs through a shift to new engineering and manufacturing activities associated with the Maker Movement. Situated next to one of London’s remaining marshlands along the River Thames, Slade Green will be transformed into a high quality, neighbourhood with a new local town centre set around a potential new Crossrail station and access to outstanding recreational spaces, delivering 8,000 new homes and 1,000 new jobs.   Thamesmead will provide more than 4,000 new homes and 5,000 new jobs, triggered by the Housing Zone and a new Crossrail station and supported by local transport improvements, a new local centre at Abbey Wood station and with better access to green and digital infrastructure. Crayford will provide the opportunity to consolidate and redefine the town centre, opening up the north of the area to more than 1,000 new high quality homes with increased access to a more naturalised River Cray. Employment will remain important to Crayford, with uses consolidated to the east, delivering 1,000 additional jobs. The borough’s strategic transport links (both road and rail) are generally east-west, based on connections with central London.  North-south movement is difficult as major roads and rail connections tend to form barriers to cross/orbital movement.  Transport investment in east London and north Kent has often left Bexley behind.  Bexley is one of just two London boroughs with no Tube, Overground or tram services at all.  Basing growth on the existing network alone is not going to deliver what Bexley needs.  Bexley’s transport picture comprises high reliance on the car, a lack of choice of good public transport, congestion, poor air quality and excessive travel times.  These factors mean Bexley has been a less attractive place to live”. All very laudable intentions; having said that, you may recall that two weeks ago I reported that I had heard a rumour that the Eastern part of the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, Erith was to be sold off to a property developer. I still have not had a confirmation or rebuttal of the rumour, but I have, whilst researching this piece on the Bexley Growth Strategy, come across what may well be a “smoking gun”. The report states:- “Parts of the Belvedere, Fraser Road, Manor Road and Crayford industrial areas will be released for other uses; however, the retained areas will be intensified and promoted as strategically important employment locations. Transport improvements, such as bus service enhancements as well as a possible Belvedere - Rainham river crossing (this has now been cast into severe doubt that this will happen), digital connectivity enhancements, including the use of dark fibre networks, and modernised business premises, such as the introduction of shared working spaces and environmental enhancements, will aid these areas.  In this way, the areas will become increasingly attractive for new industries including those displaced from elsewhere within the opportunity areas”. My interpretation of this is that several of the current industrial areas in the borough – including part of the Europa Industrial Estate will be sold off for housing, if not straight away, then within a few years. It seems to myself and others that Bexley Council is gambling on Crossrail being extended from Abbey Wood and onto Erith, Slade Green, Dartford and beyond to Ebbsfleet to connect with other rail services there, and to additionally create a transport link from central London into the forthcoming Paramount London theme park. No Government decision has yet been made in respect of an extension, although the Bexley Growth Strategy, which I featured last week seems to take it for granted. Many of the plans the council have published, such as a new town centre for Lower Belvedere, as well as additional new housing seem to take the Crossrail extension for granted. Personally I think the extension is more likely to happen than not, as a far higher percentage of the line would be above ground, and thus both easier and cheaper to build than the original Crossrail project. The only real engineering challenge would occur at the Higham and Strood Tunnel, which would need extensive widening. It seems to me that Bexley Council will have more than egg on their faces if the extension project does not get off the ground.

I was standing on the Kent bound platform at Greenwich station in the week, waiting for a train to take me back to Erith, when I had a bit of a reminisce; I can dimly recall the days of the old blue and yellow slam door trains that used to run on the Dartford via Greenwich line in the days before the Networker trains arrived. The lower of the two illustrative photos above is used with the kind permission of transport photographer Tom Burnham. Click on either image for a larger view. After a bit of Googling, I was able to discover that these old trains were called the 415 class. Regular reader and occasional contributor Justin Bailey, who is an authority on UK trains, having written a book on the subject in the past, has some recollections on these historic commuter trains:- "In the 1950s and 1960s British Rails’ Southern Region operated a wide range of EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) with a bewildering array of identifying designations. However, the readers of ‘The Maggot Sandwich’ will probably be most familiar with the type that worked the North Kent Lines for more than 40 years, the Class 415 4-EPB and the later 416 2-EPB. These trains plied the Woolwich, Bexleyheath and Sidcup lines for more than four decades carrying commuters into London Termini such as Victoria, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Blackfriars and Cannon Street. The first batch of the Class 415 were designed by the Southern Region and were functional more than fancy to say the least. Little more than flat faced carriages on wheels with an electric motor under the floors, they operated in sets of 4 coaches or 2 for the later Class 416. The EPB designation came from the type of braking they used, being Electro Pneumatically Braked. The Class 415 was introduced in 1951 but it wasn’t long before it became clear that more would be needed so a second batch was built. This time however it was designed by the British Rail design team and based on an existing BR Carriage type. The BR designed 415 was introduced in 1960 and at first glance looked the same as the SR designed units. However subtle differences existed at the front and sides which were even flatter and mundane than before! The internal layout of a mix of ‘open’ (2+3 rows of seats back to back through half a carriage length) and individual partitioned compartments (2 rows of seats seating 6 people opposite each other) evolved over time as well. The almost identical looking BR designed 2 carriage 416 was introduced in 1953 so trains could be made up to 10 coach lengths as platforms across suburban London and Kent were lengthened. A second batch of this type was also built but in contrast to how the 415 evolved this second batch was actually based on the earlier SR Design! By the late 70s it was clear that no new design was on the horizon for the Southern, so having to make do and reuse as the Southern so often did, it was decided to refurbish many of the 415s with the 416s following suit in the mid 80s. By now the units had gone through three different liveries and were into their fourth. Firstly BR green, then BR blue followed by BR blue and grey and lastly the colours of ‘Network Southeast’. By this time the individual compartments were being phased out after a series of attacks on women and even a murder in 1988. Compartment fitted stock was not allowed to run after 8.00pm. Then in the mid 1990s as the new Class 465/466 ‘Networkers’ were being introduced, the 415s and 416s were taken out of service for good having served the Kent lines of the Southern for 45 years. It was the end of an era not just in railway design but for commuting as well. They might have been cold and draughty in the winter from the iconic sounding slam doors and the ride might not have been as smooth, but with them went proper sprung seats, the guards van (and guard!) and windows that opened all the way!"

One thing that does concern me is that the ambitious plans to relaunch Erith Market seem to have to all purposes fallen by the wayside. Regular readers may recall that the market was restarted last year, but it lasted less than six weeks. The photo above was taken at the relaunch event of the market, and shows the then Conservative London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith with leader of Bexley Council Teresa O'Neill talking to a stall holder - interestingly that was the only time that particular stall came to the market. Click on the photo for a larger version. When the market was restarted in the Spring of last year, many readers who contacted me at the time were very keen for the newly relaunched market to succeed, but they felt that it was being “set up to fail”. The fact that the market was only being held on a Wednesday, and not also on Saturdays was raised as a major restriction on how successful it could be. One concerned reader wrote at the time:-“ I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only ones that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week”.  I think the sentiment is to be applauded – the market needs to be accessible to as many people as possible – not just those who are able to attend on what for many people is a working day. Opening on Saturdays would be a bonus for all parties in my opinion, and would also benefit the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, as shoppers attracted to the market from Morrison’s would quite likely also visit the shopping centre. There was what initially appeared to be some good news on the horizon though; I understood that Bexley council had submitted a planning application to expand the size of the market up to thirty two stalls. This would return the market to the kind of size it was in the late 1970’s / early 1980’s when it was located on the Pier Road car park, and held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was always a very well attended event. Since this application was submitted, things have gone very quiet, and if my suspicions are correct, the plans for a relaunch may well have been quietly shelved. If any reader has information regarding this issue, please contact me in confidence by Emailing me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association have published the following warning of another phone scam that is currently aimed at vulnerable people in the local area:- “We have received many reports of telephone calls supposedly from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. HMRC NEVER telephone! The caller claims that you have unpaid taxes and that unless you speak to a case worker and clear the debt, you will face arrest and a law suit. The caller has an aggressive tone and is threatening. The call comes from 0203 322 7241 but can also be made from similar numbers. Please warn everyone you know, especially the elderly or vulnerable.” There have also been several reports of anti-social and threatening behaviour from masked youths riding bikes. Police in Barnehurst report that youths on off road bikes in Martens Grove Park  have been identified and issued with a section 59 warning, which means if he is seen to ride again in an antisocial manner then the bike will be seized and possibly destroyed. Other illegal biker, quite likely members of the Bike Life TV UK gang, who are illegally riding motor and quad bikes on Norman Road, Lower Belvedere near to the recycling centre. Groups are turning up in the early evenings and using the area as a racing ground. This is causing issues for the staff at the centre, who are being intimidated by the group. If anyone has any information about anyone they know who uses this area as a race track then please get in contact with the police.

Nationwide supermarket chain Morrison's are in hot water this week; they have just been subject to a heavy fine from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for spamming customers with unsolicited marketing Emails, after the customers had specifically asked to be unsubscribed. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the company had broken the law when it deliberately sent more than 200,000 emails to people who had previously opted out of receiving such emails. The emails, sent between October 24 and November 25 2016, were titled "Your account details" and went out to Morrisons More loyalty cardholders that had opted out of Morrisons More card marketing. According to the ICO, the message told cardholders that they had opted out of such emails – then asked them to change their preferences to start receiving coupons and points. It also helpfully "provided directions on the steps to follow to opt back in to receive marketing". The email was sent out to 236,651 people, but only 130,671 emails were successfully received. In an unsurprising twist, one of the recipients was irritated that they received the email despite having unsubscribed from Morrisons' direct marketing – and reported the chain to the ICO. The ICO's investigation found that the email in question "would be in itself sent for the purposes of direct marketing, and so is subject to the same rules as other marketing emails". In deliberately sending the emails, the ICO said, Morrisons had deliberately contravened the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and issued it with the fine, to be paid by July 13th. In an interview with The Register website,  Deputy Information Commissioner Simon Entwistle said: "It is vital that the public can trust companies to respect their wishes when it comes to how their personal information is used for marketing. These customers had explicitly told Morrisons they didn't want marketing emails about their More card. Morrisons ignored their decision and for that we've taken action."

The end video this week is of a historic local structure that very few people are actually aware of. Howbury Moat in Slade Green - Ancient Monument - Grade II Listed Tithe Barn. Between Slade Green and Crayford Marshes is Howbury Moat, a moated site dating from around 900 AD that originally surrounded Howbury Manor House. Past Lords of the Manor included Bishop Odo of Bayeux, brother of William the Conqueror, who was given land for the part he played in the Battle of Hastings. This was formerly the manor of Howbury, recorded simply as Hov in Domesday Book, from the Old English hōh, a heel of land. Slade Green was first mentioned in the 16th century, but the name is probably of earlier origin. A ‘slade’ was “a little dell or valley; or a flat piece of low, moist ground” and it was certainly the latter meaning that applied here. The ruins and moat of the house called Howbury constitute a scheduled ancient monument, and a Jacobean tithe barn survives, but in deteri­orating condition. The structures are on private land and are not generally accessible to the public but can be seen from a nearby footpath. Give the video a watch and please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Potion progress?

As many of you will know, I have been following the situation with the abandoned and increasingly derelict former White Hart / Potion Bar with interest for several years. Various plans and schemes have come and gone, but Maggot Sandwich reader Stephen alerted me to a brand new planning application that has been submitted to Bexley Council by a potential developer. You can read details of the application by clicking here. In essence building owner The Wellington Pub Company are applying to convert the upper floors of the pub into flats, and to restore the former Victorian green glazed salt tiles and acid etched glass frontage with a replica replacement as can be seen in the drawings above. What is rather more surprising is that they also propose constructing some brand new flats overlooking the River Thames in the garden of the former pub. Nowhere in the planning application can I find any mention of what will be happening to the downstairs bar area and kitchen in the former pub. I suppose that any change of use would be subject to an additional planning application separate from this one. The new flats in the pub garden may prove somewhat controversial, and I have to say that at this point I feel that I need far more information about the proposed low - rise block before I can form an informed opinion regarding it. I can see the logic - the developer is going to have to spend a substantial sum of money on restoring and converting the upper floors of the White Hart - and the replacement pub frontage is going to cost a King's ransom to install. The handful of flats upstairs in the main building are not going to generate enough cash to make just that work profitable. Only additional new accommodation in the large former pub garden would seem to guarantee a development scheme that would make enough profit to make it attractive to an investor. We really need more information; I hope that more detail comes to light soon. The Architect's proposed design for the apartment block on the pub garden site can be seen below - click on the picture for a larger view. 

London City Airport has been suffering from a problem that has become a global safety and security concern. Passenger planes taking off and landing at the East London airport are being attacked by idiots with high powered laser pointers, in an attempt to dazzle the pilots. A chap called DCI Mark Eley is in charge of the police unit dealing with the problem. He said in a recent BBC News interview "There's been a growing trend over the last few years and we are working hard to overcome it. We think it's down to the reduction in cost of laser pens and we now have a much better reporting ethos so we know when these strikes are occurring. It's often youths mainly doing it as a prank not realising just how dangerous it is to shine these lights at an aircraft. While it may seem like a bit of a joke at the time, people are being convicted of this offence and the bottom line is this is very dangerous." Back in 2011 the Civil Aviation Authority released an eye test to help pilots decide whether they needed to visit a specialist after such attacks. Green lasers pose the most serious risk because the human eye is so much more sensitive to green light. Typically the American authorities are far more robust when it comes to catching and prosecuting idiots who use laser pointers against aircraft. The FBI recently published figures showing that offenders can be fined up to $250,000 and face up to twenty years in prison for trying to illuminate aircraft and the FBI has offered a $10,000 bounty to anyone who lets them know when a dangerous idiot is on the loose with lasers. Commercial laser pointers are unlikely to permanently blind pilots, but they can - and do - cause temporary flash blindness in the cockpit which could prove fatally distracting during a tricky landing. Despite the warnings and the heavy penalties, it hasn't stopped a small number of people from carrying out the attacks. In fact the numbers are growing. As of October 16th the FAA reports there have been 5,352 cases of laser strikes on aircraft in flight. At that rate, it is only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens. The same thing applies in the UK as far as the potential risk of aircraft attack by laser pointer is concerned. 

My article on Betamax video recorders struck quite a chord with readers last week; I have been contacted by a number of people, and been the subject of an article on the radio station Laser Hot Hits regarding my story of how some models of Betamax video machines are now worth serious money second hand on places like EBay. Several readers have been checking out their basements and loft spaces to see if their old machines are still around and working. I have been asked what models are worth looking out for. I have been talking to a good friend who is a bit of an authority on old video recorders; he says that some models of Betamax can be worth a lot of money to a collector, but others are pretty much worthless - and it is not always the models that were expensive when new that are worth a lot now. Apparently the Sony C7 model (in the photo I used on the blog last week) is very desirable, as it was very well built, reliable, and spares like drive belts are still available nowadays. I may have one in my own loft, or it may be the lesser and not so desirable Sony C5 model - I should really go up and have a check. Below is a short and very informative video which further explains why the technically superior Betamax video format lost out in the market to the cheap and cheerful VHS system.

Earlier this week I was in a meeting with a couple of colleagues when I used the phrase “it goes up to eleven”. My two colleagues, who were in their mid-twenties looked at me blankly, and I then realised that they did not know the cultural reference, which mildly shocked me. I (wrongly) assumed that pretty much everyone would be familiar with it. The phrase was coined in a scene from the 1984 mockumentary/rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap by the character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest. In the scene, Nigel gives the rockumentary's director, Marty DiBergi, played by Rob Reiner, a tour of his stage equipment. While Nigel is showing Marty his Marshall guitar amplifiers, he points out one in particular whose control knobs all have the highest setting of eleven, unlike standard amplifiers, whose volume settings are typically numbered from 0 to 10, believing that this numbering actually increases the highest volume of the amp ("It's one louder, isn't it"). When Marty asks why the ten setting is not simply set to be louder, Nigel hesitates before responding blankly again, "These go to eleven”. The phrase has entered the English language, and if you use the BBC iPlayer website, the media player volume control goes up to eleven in tribute to the scene from the classic comedy film.

I have whinged at length in the past about the folly that is self-service checkout tills in supermarkets, and how they actually take the customer longer to use than conventionally staffed supermarket checkouts. They are both unreliable compared with staffed tills, and very susceptible to fraud. I also wonder why customers get charged the same for their goods when using the self – service tills as for the ordinary tills, bearing in mind that they do all the work, I would have thought that the prices should be lower for good processed through the self-service tills, but of course this never turns out to be the case. On top of all this, recent research shows that both conventional tills and self-service tills are increasingly becoming exposed to malware. Point of Sale (POS) devices are very vulnerable to two particularly nasty pieces of malicious software. The Cherry Picker and AbaddonPOS malware, exposed in the last week, are the latest evolution in stealthy and capable point of sales credit and debit card plundering. Cherry Picker has been targeting retail businesses since 2011 and now sports new anti-analysis tricks, persistence mechanisms, and better card ripping functionality. the malware is expert at wiping evidence of itself after an attack has occurred, overwriting files multiple times and removing data exfiltration locations. The memory-scraping malware runs on Windows platforms including Windows 7 and the hard-to-kill XP, running remote administration services. It specifically targets retailers in the food industry running any point of sale software. Most of the current malware infections have so far been discovered in the USA and Canada, but it is only a matter of time before they find their way across the pond. More on Windows later - you can see I plan these things.

You may have recently read that before he ended his own life, the late comedian Robin Williams was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological condition call Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Depending on whom you speak to, it is either the second or the third most common form of dementia. Lewy bodies, named after the doctor who first identified them, are tiny deposits of protein in nerve cells. Researchers don't have a full understanding of why Lewy bodies appear in the brain, or exactly how they contribute to dementia. However, their presence is linked to low levels of important chemical messengers (mainly acetylcholine and dopamine) and to a loss of connections between nerve cells. Over time, there is progressive death of nerve cells and loss of brain tissue. Lewy bodies are the underlying cause of several progressive diseases affecting the brain and nervous system, notably DLB and Parkinson's disease. Together, these are sometimes called Lewy body disorders. The disease is still very often not caught or misdiagnosed – generally as either being Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. But Dementia with Lewy Bodies is a beast of its own, even if each patient presents its own version of symptoms – Problems with attention and alertness are very common. It is a feature of DLB that these problems vary widely over the course of the day, by the hour or even a few minutes. There may also be difficulties with judging distances and perceiving objects in three dimensions, and with planning and organising. Some also experience depression. Day-to-day memory is often affected in people with DLB, but typically less in the early stages than in early Alzheimer's Disease. Visual hallucinations (seeing things that are not there) occur in most people with DLB, and can be distressing. These are often of people or animals, and are experienced as detailed and convincing. Auditory hallucinations (hearing sounds that are not real, such as knocking or footsteps) can happen but are less common. Hallucinations and visual difficulties partly explain why many people with DLB have delusions (thinking things that are not true). Someone may believe they are being persecuted, that there are strangers living in the house, or that a spouse has been replaced by an identical imposter. Relatives and carers may find such delusions very distressing. This was the terrible condition that my late Dad suffered from for nearly ten years. One other symptom that he suffered from the the loss of distinction between being asleep and being awake. He would have a nightmare, wake up, but he nightmare would carry on - in his mind it was happening for real; this was extremely disturbing for him, and very upsetting for us. At present, there is no cure for DLB. However, with support it is possible to live well with DLB, and management of the condition aims to maximise the person's overall quality of life. Given the range of symptoms, input from a variety of professionals is needed at different times. When caring for someone with DLB, it is important to be as flexible as possible, bearing in mind that many of the symptoms will fluctuate. Treatment of DLB with drugs is often problematic: everyone responds differently, there is only limited evidence about what works, and there are few approved treatments. Also, medication given to improve mental abilities or hallucinations can make movement problems worse. Similarly, drugs for movement problems may have a negative effect on mental abilities or make hallucinations worse. It is likely to be a long time before any kind of preventive treatment, let alone a cure is found. 

A reader sent me the period photo above, which looks like it was taken in the late 1970's or thereabouts. It shows Station Parade - the row of shops which used to exist in Bexley Road, opposite Christ Church Erith. The shops were demolished to allow the construction of Bronze Age Way, the dual carriageway that leads to Lower Belvedere, Thamesmead and Woolwich. I dimly recall the parade - there was a newsagent, an off - licence (which had a reputation for serving under - age customers), an estate agent and a "greasy spoon" cafe, which was run by a rather dodgy bloke who was the uncle of someone I went to school with. My schoolmate would sometimes visit the cafe at lunchtime to get a free fry - up, but I seem to remember he had to go round collecting dirty plates and cups for his uncle afterwards. I never actually went in there myself. So much of old Erith has been destroyed over the years; this is the reason that so many residents, including myself are so keen on preserving the little that is left. 

A local community radio station has submitted an application to OFCOM for a regional commercial radio licence. Miskin Radio, which is based at North West Kent College in Dartford, is a local radio station that has been set up and launched by one of the College’s Media Lecturers, Andrew Sayers. Andrew has been working in radio since he was fourteen years old and is now focusing his passion into providing North West Kent with its own radio broadcast.  Miskin Radio has already made a firm impression since their internet debut in April 2012, with over four thousand listeners. They had a temporary community broadcasting licence back in 2012, in order to provide locally relevant coverage of the Olympic Games. Andrew described the station thus:- “This is a local community radio station for anyone who is interested in radio and the media industry. Our team includes a mixture of radio professionals, volunteers and students from North West Kent College. Our aim is to provide a radio service in the North West Kent area, for local people to get involved with and enjoy.” The OFCOM licence application normally takes around a year to be processed, so if successful, Miskin Radio could well be broadcasting to the local area by Christmas of next year. In the meantime you can listen to them online. You can visit their website here.

Microsoft Windows was thirty years old last week. On November 20, 1985, Microsoft unveiled its graphical operating system; (actually technically speaking it was not an operating system at all - from Windows 1.0 to Windows ME, Windows was actually a graphical interface shell that sat on top of DOS - which was the actual operating system - but I digress). Windows 1.0 offered a new way to navigate a PC, clicking a cursor on various boxes rather than scrolling through lines of text in order to navigate data and applications. While arguably less efficient than a command line, the graphical user interface (GUI) was more intuitive and easier for novice users to manage. Running Windows 1.0 required a PC running DOS 2.0 as well as two double-sided floppy disk drives, 256K of memory, and a new-fangled device known as a "graphics card." Windows worked with some DOS apps, while others would just run in full-screen mode. Windows 1.0 was not exactly a stirring success. PC users accustomed to the command-line interface of DOS weren't yet sold on a GUI, and only about 500,000 copies were sold in the first couple of years. It took until the early 90s for Windows to catch on, but when it did, the OS became synonymous with the PC and made Microsoft one of the most successful and powerful companies in the world for the next two decades. Windows has had its ups and downs - at times it has been an excellent operating system, with other iterations, it has been truly terrible; let's look at some of the bad ones first:- Windows Vista was the long-awaited successor to Windows XP – perhaps that's part of why it is considered such a huge disappointment. After years of speculation and hype, Vista was roundly panned by critics and loathed by consumers. Part of the problem was its hefty hardware requirements that, for many users, meant upgrading components or just buying an entirely new PC. Add to that performance issues and default security settings that would flood users with permission dialogues, and you get one of Microsoft's biggest flops. Windows ME, however, was an even bigger flop than Vista. The final DOS based, consumer-only version of Windows, its mere mention will draw cringes to this day. It was a buggy, sluggish mess of an operating system and is considered by many to be Microsoft's worst-ever Windows version. On top of being riddled with bugs, ME suffered from a rather unfortunate flaw in its system restore process that on some machines meant that when something did go seriously wrong, the OS could not be restored. On a happier note, there have been some excellent and very popular versions of Windows:- Windows 3.11 was credited as the first true "hit" version of Windows and the commercial success that the platform needed to be considered more than just an add-on for DOS. It also carved out a niche for itself in the embedded market that would last for more than two decades. Windows for Workgroups was phenomenally successful as a platform for consoles, point of sale terminals, and workstations. Well into the 2000s, Windows 3.11 could be found in embedded devices. Just a few weeks ago, it was found that Orly Airport in France used Windows 3.11 to power a critical weather prediction system, 23 years after its release and nearly 15 years after Microsoft pulled official support. Windows XP SP2 was the version of XP that Microsoft got right. Three years after XP hit, Microsoft pushed out the second service pack and finally addressed some of the myriad of security problems that plagued XP. Like Windows 3.11, XP SP2 has enjoyed a lifespan so long it has become troublesome. Despite Microsoft's best efforts to get people to upgrade their systems to newer versions, more than one in ten PCs still rely on XP. Windows 7 was another stellar release that came after a less-than-stellar predecessor. In this case, Windows 7 corrected a lot of the things that Vista got wrong, particularly security, performance, and hardware demands. It may also be in for a lengthy run as the Windows release of choice. With Windows 8 bombing and many viewing Windows 10 with skepticism, Microsoft could once again find itself having to continue to support Windows 7 longer than it would want to. Time will tell, as Windows no longer has the complete stranglehold on the computer world that it used to have.

Earlier in the week I received an Email which contained the following appeal to the public:- "I am PC Richard Bradford and I work for the Metropolitan Police Service here on the London Borough of Bexley. Bexley Police, in partnership with Bexley Council, are currently working on an initiative called 'The Commissioner's Christmas Tree Project'. Please see an extract below from the project information:- "A simple idea in the spirit of Christmas. A child in need can be helped by a simple gift from someone they have never met. That person gains no recognition other than knowing they have shown some care for a child that needs a little more love than most." The project began in 2012 with a single tree at New Scotland Yard. It expanded to five boroughs in 2013 and in 2014 the project was run for the first time pan-London, and supplied 6840 presents to looked after children. Every year we aim to increase this amount and maximise the engagement.There are approximately 65,000 children looked after by local authorities in England. At any on time the London Borough of Bexley has in excess of 1200 living in care within Bexley. All Metropolitan Police Boroughs will display a physical tree in their area, ours will be at Bexleyheath Police Station. Each tree will have tags on and the tags explain how to buy a present for a child in care. The gifts are handed in to police stations or other nominated Metropolitan police premises and then later distributed to the children. This project is now being directed at local businesses, churches, schools and residents asking for any kind donations of suitable gifts or store vouchers to pass on to the children in care in Bexley. The project opens on 10th November 2015 and will close on 08th December 2015 in order to get the gifts to the children in time for Christmas. To date ‘ASDA Bexleyheath’ have kindly offered to support us with their own donation point for a gift appeal and have kindly offered us a Christmas tree and support with publicity. ‘Premier Autocentres in Blackfen’ have kindly offered their support for this project by donating funds and are supporting us with the publicity. Prior to the launch date in November we will be liaising with local media asking for their support with publicity and the same on closing the project on 08th December 2015 when the gifts are given to the children and we will be thanking all those businesses for their support. So again I ask with the kindest intent would ‘YOU’ be able to support us with this project and consider making a donation at either www.met.police.uk/christmastree or www.justgiving.com/metxmastree Alternatively you can drop a present off at Bexleyheath Police station or speak to your dedicated ward officer for other arrangements".

As construction work between Abbey Wood and Plumstead continues, news reaches me that the UK’s largest rail project, Crossrail, will feature trains that are fully wheelchair-accessible, air-conditioned and wi-fi enabled. The trains, which are being built by Bombardier Transportation’s UK factory in Derby, will have space for 1,500 customers in nine walk-through carriages. Each will be more than 200 metres long. They will also re-generate electricity back into the network when braking, meaning they will use 30% less energy. The £14.8 billion cross-London project, which includes 26 miles of tunnelling through central London, has been hailed by Prime Minister David Cameron as “an engineering triumph”. The new trains will be in service from May 2017, though testing is scheduled to begin far sooner than that date. I am sure the many local transport enthusiasts will be out in force with their cameras when that day finally arrives.

The ending video this week is a historical gem - it shows life and work on the River Thames from back in 1959; it gives a rare colour glimpse into what was then a rapidly changing environment. One can see all of the old warehouses on the banks of the Thames, shortly before most were demolished to make way for offices - and the few that remained were converted into extremely desirable and expensive apartment buildings today. One can also see The Pool of London, and the old docks still at work. Only a decade or so later and most of this would be gone, as the larger container ships could not get upriver as far as London, and loading and unloading would move to the massively expanded container port at Tilbury.  In the film you can still see goods being unloaded by hand, something that would be completely unthinkable nowadays. It is a fascinating snapshot into a part of London that is no longer there. See what you think, and please either leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Betamax Challenge.

The serious traffic accident outside of the Running Horses in Erith High Street on Tuesday lunchtime made the regional newspapers – the London Evening Standard covered the story, which you can read here. There was also a very interesting and pertinent comment made on the story on the News Shopper website. A young lady made the following observation “At least 10 accidents have happened in our window view in the past ten years, in that same spot. It was only yesterday, that the police rang my Mum to get evidence after she was verbally abused in the street. The police said there is no CCTV to prove it. It was only 3 weeks ago that there was another accident there and the youths left the car in the middle of the road and yet again, the road was closed off. This is a blind spot. One way traffic and no lights in the evening on the Riverside Gardens. It's just the norm here. Kaitlyn Boxall, age 15. MORE POLICE!!!” The problems with traffic accidents in Erith High Street will only get worse when the new housing development is constructed on the site of the old Erith Riverside Swimming Baths on the corner of Walnut Tree Road. Around seventy residences – a mix of apartments and town houses will be built on the site, and the level of traffic along the river front road will increase. I am somewhat surprised at the number of serious accidents that have been reported on the road over the last couple of years, as Erith High Street has been a one way road for many years, and it has some fairly sizable speed bumps, as anyone who has been on a bus travelling along the road will attest. I understand that due to worn road markings, there can be confusion over rights of way at the junction between Erith High Street and West Street. I have no idea of the precise circumstances of the most recent accident, but it does seem that despite the local traffic calming measures, it would seem to still be a black spot for traffic collisions.  Do you have any thoughts on the subject? Leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Council is continuing in its cutbacks; next week an announcement will be made regarding the fate of a number of Bexley libraries. It is strongly anticipated that the libraries located at Blackfen, Bostall, North Heath and Upper Belvedere will be handed over to community groups to run, in order to save on the wages bill. Basically the staff will be replaced with unpaid volunteers. Under the new management arrangements, the core services of the library will be enhanced by new facilities including a click and collect parcel service, a food ordering service and a coffee shop.  Membership of the libraries will continue to be free of charge. No details have been released about any possible changes to Erith Library, which I pass twice daily on my way to and from work. I think it would be more accurate to call the place the “Erith Wi-Fi Hotspot” as most of the people who use the library are school children and students from Bexley College who use the free WiFi to connect their laptops and tablets in order to undertake research and study. Very few people seem to avail themselves of the actual books. I have to say that the current library feels not very welcoming; it is airless and very much a bland, corporate space that could just as easily be a hospital waiting room. To my opinion it entirely lacks the charm and character of the old Andrew Carnegie gifted library building in Walnut Tree Road (see the photo above - click on it for a larger view), which stands empty and unused – a real shame for what is decidedly one of the landmark buildings of Erith. Debate about the future of the former library building is very much under way. Erith Town Forum have been campaigning for the building to be both preserved and also to be put back into productive public use. Hopefully more news will become available soon.

There has been coverage in the press recently about the number of people who are installing advert blocking software on their computers - a move which is threatening the business models of large numbers of websites that rely on adverts on their sites to pay the bills. There is another, more worrying aspect to the whole story though; online adverts can be subverted to install malware on the computer visiting that site. High end business magazine The Economist recently had some serious problems with their website, when it was taken over by criminals for a short period of time.  "If you visited economist.com at any time between Oct. 31, 23:52 GMT and 01:15 GMT, Nov. 1, using Windows OS and you do not have trusted anti-virus software installed, it is possible that malware disguised as an Adobe update was downloaded onto your PC," the publication said. The Economist advised that anyone who received what appeared to be a Flash update from the website should change all of their passwords on their computer, and notify their banks and other financial institutions to check for suspicious activity. The magazine also recommended that any exposed users should install and maintain up-to-date antivirus software from Microsoft or a third-party security vendor, a good idea even for those who were not exposed to the Halloween weekend PageFair malware attack. The malware outbreak was attributed to an attack on the popular PageFair publishing tool. Hackers were able to get into PageFair's systems and play a devious Halloween trick on the company and customers who use its tools to thwart ad-blocking plug-ins. According to PageFair, the attackers stole employee credentials via a spear phishing attack and then took over the PageFair content distribution network. From there, the hackers began feeding publishers JavaScript code that attempted to download and install a botnet controller masquerading as an update for Adobe's Flash Player plugin. It is estimated that the sites affected by the PageFair breach serve as many as 10 million page views per month. The outbreak does no favours for PageFair's campaign to dissuade users from running ad-blockers, which are popular in large part because of their ability to shield users from malicious advertising copy, just like they have been hit with. It just goes to show that even the most august and reputable websites can be hijacked by bad guys.

Regular Maggot Sandwich reader Lincoln sent me the historic photo above, and wrote:- "I thought you might like to see this picture. I have read your stuff in the MS recently about BICC at Erith, Cable making was also happened on the West side of the Greenwich Peninsula, this picture shows the Cable and Wireless cable making plant and a cable being loaded onto the ship. Yesterday was particularly nostalgic for my old friend who worked for C+W in the very early 1970's and actually used to go to the plant and then worked on this ship laying cable in the West Indies. The plant is now replaced by flats but the loading gantry is still on the dockside. Incidentally the developers have blocked off the Thames Path with no diversion signs at all. I guess money talks". I think you are sadly correct; too much of our industrial history is being quietly erased to make way for more anonymous apartments for absentee foreign owners to purchase as "investments" - often a euphemism for money laundering. Look at the scandalous situation at Enderby Wharf. Enderby House, and the nearby Enderby Wharf where from the 1850’s to the 1970’s the home of undersea telecommunications cable manufacturing. The very first intercontinental communications technology was created and manufactured on the site; The first telegraph cable to France was laid in 1850 after tremendous efforts to find technologies that worked. Until 1970s the cable was made here in Greenwich and loaded onto cable-laying ships moored on the riverside using the equipment that is still in place on the shore today. Enderby House became crucial to the history of the world’s communications after the Atlantic Telegraph Company was set up in 1856 to provide a telegraph link between the old and new worlds. Initially the cables were used to carry Morse Code signals for the fledgling telegraph industry; later voice and teleprinter data capability was added; nowadays the world’s data networks are run by millions of miles of high capacity fibre optic cable - which was invented by a Hong Kong born British / American citizen called Dr. Charles Kao. He attended Woolwich Polytechnic, and in the 1960’s invented the entire field of fibre optic data transmission technology, without which the modern high speed Internet would be impossible. Charles Kao and his work in the pioneering field of optical digital communications gained him a number of awards, including a Knighthood, and the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physics. His cables were made and then were wound onto giant drums at Enderby Wharf, where they were then loaded onto cable laying ships, ready to be laid on the seabed of the world’s oceans. The Enderby Wharf factory made 82% of the world’s undersea cable until the late 1950’s, when other manufacturing facilities took on a greater role. There is still a factory owned by Alcatel Lucent on the site behind Enderby House, but now it only makes undersea cable switching and control gear, rather than the cables themselves, which are now manufactured at other locations. Enderby House has been sold by Alcatel Lucent to Barratt’s, and is now in a very shabby and damaged state; the empty building, though listed, has been repeatedly vandalised by local knuckle dragging morons. If nobody intervenes, it is highly likely that Barratt’s will petition to get the historic building de – listed; they would then be able to demolish it to make way for yet more yuppie housing. A campaign has been started to preserve Enderby House and the adjacent Wharf and to turn them into a museum of telecommunications. Barratt have already demolished most of the undersea cable winding section of the factory, and more is likely to go soon.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has submitted an application to open a new shop in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. The new shop is said to bring five new jobs to the village. A spokesperson from Paddy Power was quoted in the Bexley Times as saying "We look forward to our new team members bringing our unique brand to life on Nuxley Road and are proud to be investing in the Belvedere community" Er - quite. It seems like every high street now has three or four shops, whereas in the past one might have sufficed. What I have discovered is that the reason for the explosion in the number of shops has got little if anything to do with more people wanting to put a few quid on a horse, or bet on the outcome of a football match – in fact research shows that “conventional” betting is now a minority activity for UK betting shops. What people are visiting betting shops for nowadays is something else entirely – the Fixed Odds Betting Terminal (FOBT).  This bears little resemblance to the old style “one armed bandit” which would accept your 10p in the slot. Fixed Odds Betting Terminals are slick, computerised devices that offer games such as poker, blackjack and roulette. Gamblers can place bets using debit or credit cards, and it is possible to lose £100 every twenty seconds on such machines. In the betting shop industry, these machines are known as “the crack cocaine of gambling” as studies have proved that they are four times more psychologically addictive than any other activity in a bookmaker. There are currently no reliable estimates of the number of people (and it is usually young men) who are addicted to FOBT machines. The insidious spread of bookmakers on British high streets can be followed back to 2005, when Tony Blair’s government passed the Gambling Act, which at the time was feared to allow the creation of “super casinos”. This did not happen; instead it opened the doors for a deluge of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. There are currently 33,000 such terminals in the UK, and they generate £1.5 billion in profit for the bookmakers. The real reason for the explosion in the number, rather than the size of bookmakers shops is simple. The Gambling Act 2005 placed restrictions on the number of FOBT’s in each bookmaker. What it did not do was place any restriction on the number of bookmakers on any high street. Consequently you may see several bookmakers in the same area, all from the same parent company. If a bookmaker wants to run more Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in a particular area, all it has to do is get permission to open another shop. Until recently many local councils have been reluctant to  block these extra shops, as they bring in council tax revenue, and often occupy otherwise empty premises. This attitude is starting to change, as the realisation that FOBT machines suck cash out of hard pressed communities – yes, the shops do employ a small number of staff –  but these usually on very long hours, and paid the minimum wage. Most of the bookmaker chains are owned by FTSE listed companies who  operate aggressive, but technically legal tax avoidance schemes – so the money that comes out of bookmakers does not go back into the local economy. Personally I have absolutely no interest in any form of gambling – I regard it as a tax on the stupid. The problem is that the gambling industry is wealthy and powerful, and has a strong lobby in parliament – last year the five big gambling firms, which between them account for 92% of all bookmakers shops on the high street made an estimated total gross profit of £1.6 billion on FOBT machines alone – and this does not take into account the additional cash they generate through conventional stakes based gambling; still a very lucrative market, if now being overshadowed by the rise of the electronic gambling machine, and also it ignores the vast amounts of cash spent during online gambling – a somewhat shady and overlooked area of an industry that already has a somewhat tarnished image. Personally I feel that the UK gambling industry needs a massive shake up. It has been allowed far too free a rein for years, and has exploited the market to the point where it is more powerful than some banks. People rightly get annoyed by the activities of certain banks and bankers, whilst seemingly overlooking the scourge of the high street and nowadays also the web, the big five bookies. If all this was not bad enough, the web based casinos and poker sites that operate on the periphery of some country’s laws are proving increasingly aggressive in trying to separate people from their hard earned cash. I have noticed that sites such as 888 Casino and 888 Poker use software resistant pop – ups and pop unders, which are embedded into legitimate web sites, usually without the owner’s consent. The fact that a large organisation would willfully contravene the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to try and promote its dubious services to me says a lot about their intentions. I have a very low opinion of such organisations.  What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The historic photograph above was sent to me by reader Jacob earlier this week; it shows young members of the Queen Street Baptist Church Young Men's Gymnastic Club from back in 1918. It strikes me that the young lads in the photo were extremely lucky to be just a little too young to have been eligible for the draft for the Great War - and they would have been too old for the draft for World War II as well. After the utter carnage that had been, and the carnage that was to come, at least one generation would not have front line experience of global warfare.

E.ON this week became the first of the major energy suppliers to be hit by new fines for failing to install smart meters for business customers. Watchdog Ofgem said that E.ON failed to provide two-thirds of its business customers with advanced meters by the deadline of April 2014 and fined it £7 million.  If the company fails to hit a new target it could face a further  £7 million sanction and a possible sales ban. Two more providers — British Gas and npower — are also being investigated after the energy industry came up short in fulfilling a five-year target to roll-out sophisticated meters which would give businesses more accurate bills, help them monitor their energy usage and make it easier to switch suppliers. When Ofgem began its investigation, just over a year ago, some 40,000 business customers were still waiting for a smart meter, more than half of which should have been supplied by one of these three companies. As I have written in the past, smart meters are there for the convenience of the utility companies, not for the customer; they tie the customer to the existing supplier, as most energy companies use different, incompatible models of smart meter, and if the customer decides to switch supplier, they have to bear the cost of the new meter to be installed, and the old one to be taken away - something the energy companies don't like admitting.

MP for Erith and Thamesmead Teresa Pearce attended the St John’s Ambulance Everyday Heroes awards earlier this week; she is campaigning for compulsory first aid training for all state-educated children. At the ceremony, Teresa said "Basic first aid skills can transform lives and teach responsibility. That’s why the campaign’s called ‘Every Child A Lifesaver’: because every child has the untapped potential to save a life The bill doesn’t expect the impossible to suddenly become possible. But we can give people the absolute best chance of surviving by equipping children with the skills to keep them alive while the ambulance gets to them." I think that this is an absolutely excellent idea - I just wonder why nobody has thought of it before?

Boris Johnson has announced free travel for under 11s will be extended from Transport for London services to the National Rail network from January 2nd next year. Children under 11 years of age can currently travel free on Tubes, London buses, London Overground and Docklands Light Railway services, which has put many in South and South East London at a disadvantage. Other transport fares are to increase by one per cent but single bus fares and all but two pay as you go Tube charges will remain the same. The revised charges, including a 10p increase to £2.40 for some Tube fares and a 20p rise to £17.20 for an all zones travelcard, are expected to raise £43m annually. This all sounds quite fair and equitable - giving under elevens from South of the River Thames the same access to rail based public transportation as their compatriots North of the river. The flipside of this free travel may be similar to what happened when bus travel was made free to minors - a small minority of kids then felt it was OK for them to abuse the privilege. You still get kids travelling one stop on the bus, then getting off. Whether the same thing will happen with the railways, only time will tell.

You may have noticed that earlier this week the BBC News website featured a story about how Sony were finally stopping production of Betamax video cassettes. Something that might quite surprise you is that the price of old Betamax video recorders is currently going through the roof; a couple of years ago you could not give one away if you tried. Suddenly they are turning up on EBay and the bidding competition is fierce. Prices of £250 and upwards have been noted. What is the reason for this? Well, it does not seem to be down to any love for the outdated video format (which whilst it failed in the domestic home market, it was the cornerstone of many TV news and outside broadcast units for many years).  It would appear that people are coming across family videos recorded on Betamax cassettes and wish to digitise them. Most professional video transfer services can handle VHS and the common broadcast formats, but very few are capable of doing anything with a Betamax format cassette. People with old recordings of weddings and family events realise that if they wish to be able to see them again, they will need to locate a device capable of playing the tape format - hence the sudden upsurge of interest. The ironic thing is, it is pretty likely that the tapes will be unwatchable even when a suitable player is used. Both Betamax and VHS cassettes deteriorate over time, even when stored in ideal conditions. A thirty year old video tape will have demagnetised and printed through so much that it will almost certainly show on screen as a mess of flickering static with a few undersaturated, ghostly images of what remains of the original recording now.  I recently have read quite a lot about the format wars between VHS and Betamax back in the early 1980's. From all that I have read, it became apparent that Sony, the creators of the Beta format were pretty much to blame for the demise of what initially was a far technically superior video format than the relatively pedestrian VHS system. The main determining factor between Betamax and VHS was the cost of the recorders and length of recording time. Betamax is, in theory, a superior recording format over VHS due to resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines), slightly superior sound, and a more stable image; Betamax recorders were also of higher quality construction. But these differences were negligible to consumers, and thus did not justify either the extra cost of a Betamax VCR (which was often significantly more expensive than a VHS equivalent) or Betamax's shorter recording time. JVC, which designed the VHS technology, licensed it to any manufacturer that was interested. The manufacturers then competed against each other for sales, resulting in lower prices to the consumer. Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax initially and so was not pressured to reduce prices. Only in the early 1980s did Sony decide to licence Betamax technology to other manufacturers, such as Toshiba and Sanyo. What Sony did not take into account was what consumers wanted. While Betamax was believed to be the superior format in the minds of the public and press (due to excellent marketing by Sony), consumers wanted an affordable video recorder (a VHS machine was often around a hundred pounds less than an equivalent Betamax one); Sony believed that having better quality recordings was the key to success, and that consumers would be willing to pay a higher retail price for this, whereas it soon became clear that consumer desire was focused more intently on longer recording time, lower retail price, and compatibility with other machines for cassette sharing (as VHS was becoming the format in the majority of homes). The real Betamax killer was that for the first few years, the maximum length of recording was limited to one hour on Beta, whereas VHS could stretch to four hours with reduced image quality, critically long enough to record an entire American football game - the lucrative mass American market both systems were looking to crack. Sony had the attitude of "We know best" as to what the market wanted, and ignored requests for features that quickly became standard with their competitors. Consequently Betamax is now considered alongside the 8 - Track cartridge as a dodo technology. You can read about the history of the video format war by clicking here. If you are of the opinion that Betamax is far too mainstream, well known and commonplace, do yourself a favour by visiting the Philips V2000 web site here. You can also read more about other format wars by clicking here.

Richard, the author of the excellent Thamesmead Grump blog has been taking photographs of local wildlife for a very long time. He's seen quite a few seals in the river near to Crossness; the presence of seals in the river is a very good indication of good quality water and lots of wildlife, as seals are at the top of the river food chain, and they would not hang around if there were not plenty of fish and shellfish to eat. This is all very good news for the overall health of the River Thames. The video below was taken on the Slade Green Marshes by a local chap with an amateur camera drone. He catches four seals basking on the shore - they seem totally relaxed, despite the flying camera. Give it a watch and see what you think - comments below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.