A second incinerator.

Last June I featured an article about a proposal to construct a second waste incinerator in Lower Belvedere. London Mayor Sadiq Khan got involved with a project that has been condemned by both local MP's. Mr Khan had also come down against the plan that has been submitted by Cory Riverside Energy to build a waste incinerator on a site adjacent to the Crossness Nature Reserve, which is home to a number of very rare species of both birds and bats. The site would also be very close to the existing Cory waste incinerator pictured in the photo above - click on it for a larger version.  In an interview that has been published on the News Shopper and elsewhere, Mayor Khan said of the Cory proposal:- "London’s air is a toxic air health crisis and the last thing we need, in our modern green global city is another harmful waste-burning incinerator polluting our city. Emissions from incinerators are bad for our health, bad for our environment and bad for our planet. Instead of granting permission for an unnecessary new incinerator that will raise pollution levels in the boroughs of Bexley and Havering, the Government should focus on boosting recycling rates, reducing the scourge of plastic waste and tackling our lethal air. I am urging ministers to reject this proposal". Unfortunately - and as many had predicted, the second incinerator is now going ahead. The decision was made on 9th April by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to approve the development of a second mass waste incinerator at Belvedere. Councillor Stefano Borella (Slade Green and Northend ward) said “These proposals don’t support increasing recycling rates and evidence shows local authorities that use these facilities have seen their recycling rates suppressed. In addition, the increased traffic and congestion as a result of cable laying to Littlebrook power station in Dartford will impact on air quality as a result of the disruption. It is bitterly disappointing that this announcement was released at the start of the Easter weekend during the current pandemic, when residents priorities will be on other issues.” Councillor Dave Putson (Belvedere ward) said “This plant will detrimentally impact on the immediately adjacent Crossness nature reserve and will have a lasting impact on wildlife and habitats carefully nurtured over many years. In addition, this incinerator will increase fine dust particulate emissions and detrimentally impact on health and air quality in the local area” Local MPs and the Mayor of London have raised objections at the building of a second incinerator. Several key local figures, including Erith and Thamesmead MP Abena Oppong-Asare, indicated they would challenge the decision, while a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said officers would now review details of the decision and would comment further once it has been fully assessed. “The Secretary of State’s decision to approve the application for the Cory Incinerator is extremely disappointing, The Mayor’s team provided evidence and representations through the examination process to demonstrate that this facility is not needed to manage London’s waste and will have a detrimental impact on recycling, climate change and air quality.” There is no statutory appeal process and the decision can now only be challenged by individuals or authorities via a judicial review process. What do you think? Email me in complete confidence at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I don't normally comment on stories that make the national news, but I am making an exception this week, as I had a personal involvement with the individual involved. You may have seen news articles and obituaries for Ronan O'Rahilly, who died last week. I met him a number of times, and had several telephone calls from him in the late 1980's and early 1990's when I worked for his brainchild, Radio Caroline. Much has been written about this maverick and eccentric man, but I am just going to focus on my personal memories and experiences with Ronan (or "The Old Man" as Caroline staff tended to refer to him). I found Ronan to be a thoughtful and charismatic person who would come out with outrageous ideas seemingly from nowhere. He had the same kind of "reality distortion field" often attributed to the late Steve Jobs of Apple. Ronan O'Rahilly was the person who changed the face of British radio – before Caroline the BBC only played a few hours of music a week, and were loath to broadcast anything challenging or different. It is probable that many British bands from the 60’s and 70’s would not have had the success they did without the extensive air time Caroline gave them - certainly both The Rolling Stones and The Who credited their early success to exposure on Radio Caroline, and George Harrison of The Beatles donated a lot of money to the Caroline organisation over the years. Ronan was behind the tours of the UK that the Stax and Motown labels undertook – this was when other UK radio stations played no music of black origin. Ronan was one of life’s eccentrics; he would come up with some utterly crackpot idea, but such was the power of his warmth, charm and personality, he would have you believing him – at least until he left the room. Usually a couple of minutes later, you would get a “hang on a minute” thought, and you would realise how bonkers what you had just been told actually was. Ronan had a soft half Irish / half American accent, and it became a running joke amongst Radio Caroline staff that if you heard the “Old Man” start a sentence with “Hey, I’ve got this really great idea!” you knew what followed was going to be challenging, if impractical, dangerous, or downright contrary to the established laws of physics - nevertheless, it would always be interesting. I recall that during one phone call he made to me, Ronan suggested replacing the antenna system on the Ross Revenge with a fully grown tree(!) He thought it would signal the stations support for environmental issues - the idea of using a tree as a radio antenna was of course impossible, impractical and about as left field as one could imagine - typical Ronan then. In his later years he was crippled by Vascular Dementia, and was moved into a care home in Ireland, Having lost my own father to dementia (albeit of a different type) I know how challenging caring for someone with the condition can be. My thoughts are with his family in Ireland, who have now lost the great, inspirational man, and a truly lovely bloke who changed the face of the British media for ever.

Erith Pier is a popular destination when the weather is good; I took the photo above (click on it for a larger view) yesterday. Whilst not appearing in the photo, a number of people were strolling on the pier, but all were keeping suitably apart from each other, and nobody was fishing.

Now that Spring is with us – incidentally my favourite time of the year. I love the lengthening hours of daylight and the way in which nature appears to wake up from the long winter sleep. Unfortunately it does bring problems with it. On Wednesday afternoon, whilst queuing outside of Morrison's in Erith, I watched two young foxes raiding the bins located outside of Wharfside Close. One resident came out of his townhouse and shouted and waved his arms at the two animals. They merely stared at him, then carried on their business as if he was not there. The problem of urban foxes not being scared of humans has been steadily getting worse for a number of years. Readers may recall my account from some time back; I was sitting in my living room reading one evening. I had the back door open. Suddenly I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye; when I looked up, there was a young adult fox, sitting in the middle of my living room less than ten feet from where I was sitting. I had to stand up and shout at it before it decided to move, and it calmly sauntered back across the living room, over the kitchen lobby, where it picked up one of my gardening boots in its’ mouth, before it tried to then make off with its’ plunder. Fortunately I managed to get it to drop the heavy boot. That was just one of several incidents I have experienced, and I see foxes on an almost daily basis. Some locals have taken to putting bricks on the lids of their recycling wheelie bins, but the intelligent and resourceful foxes soon learned to push the bricks off. 

The Coronavirus lock down has affected so many local businesses; some unfortunately may never recover, whilst others such as Bexley Brewery have introduced a door to door real ale delivery service, which I understand has been extremely successful. Many food outlets have been forced to close. One that has adopted a new business model is the long established Belvedere Tandoori. They recently published the following announcement:- "Dear customers, just an update as to where we are and where we might be going. As you all know we closed the restaurant 4 weeks ago completely, including takeaways. In the meantime, the staff have stayed productive by refreshing their food preparation skills with online courses as well as doing a Coronavirus course (yes there is one, £6.99 and tells you pretty much everything you knew anyway, like self distancing, PPE, sanitising and so on), although there was some interesting info on bacteria life cycles and it’s activeness on various surfaces amongst other things. We are looking at reopening the takeaway collection and delivery service. Deliveries can be contactless, meaning we would simply leave your food by your front door. Obviously for this to work, payments would need to be made over the phone using a credit/debit card. Delivery drivers will be wearing gloves and masks so you can use cash if you need to. All staff will be using masks and gloves at all times, maintaining a wash your hands every 15 minutes policy. Although, if you’ve worked in a restaurant kitchen you’ll know staff wash their hands pretty much every 2-3 minutes. Also all my staff drive so no one is using public transport either. Hope to see you guys soon. Belvedere Tandoori Management". 

I have uncovered a strange link with Hall Place in Bexley to one of the largest and most successful counter – intelligence operations in British history. Some readers may have seen in the past, the excellent Ben Macintyre television documentary on the World War II German spies and double agents that were controlled by MI5 throughout the war. The Nazis were under the impression that they had a widespread and successful network of spies in the UK, when in fact every single agent was working for the British, to the point that MI5 were actually controlling German Military intelligence for much of the war. This was a vital part of Operation Fortitude – the plan to keep Nazi high command from discovering when and where the D-Day invasion of France would take place. As Winston Churchill said “The truth is so precious, it needs to be protected with a bodyguard of lies”. As well as the fake agents sending false information back to the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) the plan constructed entire armies of fake vehicles, buildings and radio messages indicating troop build – ups where in reality there was nothing but empty fields. On top of all this, the planning to fool the Nazis took some rather surreal turns. It was anticipated that in addition to using portable radio transmitters, and sending letters written in invisible ink via neutral countries, that any German spies in the UK would also want to communicate via carrier pigeon; this was a very old, but virtually undetectable method of passing secret information. The use of animals in covert warfare was nothing new; the Special Operations Executive (SOE) stuffed dead rats with explosive to be used in sabotage operations. The American Navy trained dolphins to place explosive charges under enemy ships, but the most bizarre use of animals has to be a plan hatched by a Royal Air Force officer by the name of Flight Lieutenant Walker; his plan flourished in that grey area that exists between ingenuity and insanity. His idea was called the “Double Cross Pigeon Racket” - a plan designed to wipe out the Nazi carrier pigeon operation in a single stroke. Every German intelligence section in occupied France had a carrier pigeon section; on top of this, collaborators within the French civilian population were being recruited by the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) to act as a “stay behind” group, who would harbour German carrier pigeons to be released with vital intelligence messages in the event of a successful allied invasion. Lieutenant Walker was aware that Nazi propaganda minister Heinrich Himmler was a keen pigeon fancier, and he began to wonder if Himmler’s interest could be manipulated to the Allied advantage. If the Nazis could be fooled into thinking that British spy pigeons had infiltrated their lofts, then it would throw suspicion on the entire Nazi carrier pigeon service; if the Nazis could no longer trust their own pigeons, they might well end up killing the lot to be on the safe side. In the winter of 1943, Flight Lieutenant Walker presented his plan to MI5 with a memo entitled “Pigeon Contamination Plan” – “A stray or lost pigeon will almost always find its way into some loft. If a number of British pigeons could be disguised as German pigeons by putting forged German identity rings on them, then releasing them on the continent (deliberately choosing second rate birds which would be unlikely to attempt the long flight back over the English Channel) they would eventually find their way into German controlled pigeon lofts. Sooner or later the Germans would discover that they were being fooled. They would find two pigeons with the same leg ring number, or a grey pigeon wearing a ring that was clearly assigned to a red pigeon. They would begin to wonder just how many of their pigeons were phoney, and the only thing they could do would be to call in all of their birds and check them. Until they had checked all of their birds in all of their lofts they would be unable to use any carrier pigeon services, and by the time they had gone through them all, I would have delivered more phonies”. MI5 were enthusiastic and gave the project the go – ahead. The Germans were braced for the invasion of Europe by the Allies, the discovery that their carrier pigeon lofts had been infiltrated by double – agent pigeons could throw them off balance at a critical psychological moment. The double agent pigeons were housed in lofts all over the South East of England, one of which was based at Hall Place in Bexley, which was also the home of an SOE training unit and a Y- Intercept station run by the U.S Army (a radio receiving unit that intercepted Nazi signals communications for onwards transmission via dedicated phone lines to Bletchley Park for decoding). The “Double Cross Pigeon Racket” was put into operation, and …. Nothing happened. After the war, captured Abwehr records showed that the forged identification leg rings on the double agent pigeons were so convincingly crafted that the Nazi pigeon handlers never actually realised that the birds they were receiving were phony. The plan was so well executed that the Germans never realised they had been duped, and so carried on sending messages to their “agents” – all of whom were already working for MI5 anyway. A bizarre, ironic, but true story. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo of old Erith above was taken in (I believe) 1901; it shows Pier Road looking up towards Cross Street. On the left is the bookshop owned by R.H Starkey, who also sold stationery. Next is Harry Palmer the Draper, and on the right is C.F Savage's Boot Warehouse. Nothing in the photo exists in Erith today, with the exception of the name Pier Road.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the report from Barnehurst ward:- "Great News for Barnehurst Residents, we have had no crimes to report although the team have been busy on the ward patrolling and reminding members of the public about the Governments Guidelines around COVID-19. We have received reports of golfers continuing to play golf on Barnehurst Golf Course. A number of golfers have been advised, unfortunately we cannot patrol this area 24/7 but when on duty this is an area where we concentrate our foot patrols. The team conducted two stop and searches after officers smelt a strong smell of cannabis coming from the wooded area of the golf course. One male was dealt with for possession of cannabis. The team have also received reports from various residents with regards to vehicles driving dangerously in and around Parkside Avenue, Northall Road, Beverley Road and Manor Way. The team have been carrying out patrols and will be dealing with this matter. Any further sightings please let us know. Please stick to the guidelines and remember the social distancing measures of two metres. Stay Safe". Belvedere ward - no report received this week. Bexleyheath ward:- "Thursday 16/04/2020 0305 Burglary Russell Close -  entry gained by front door believed to have been after vehicle keys, nothing taken, suspects disturbed. Whilst our crimes do remain low at the moment there are still criminals about, please do ensure that doors are double locked with keys and do not keep valuables in your vehicles". Crayford ward:- "Criminal damage was caused to a silver Saab whilst parked outside Lyles Court in London Road between Sunday 15/03/2020 and Thursday 9/04/2020. Number plates EU63FPV stolen from a Silver Ford Kuga on Friday 10th April between 06.00 and 18.00 whilst parked in Heath Road close to the top end of Hillside Road. Garden tools were stolen from a greenhouse at the Crayford Way allotments between Thursday 9th and Friday 10th April. On Friday 17th April at approx. 03.50 police were alerted that 2 males had been seen trying to get in to the petrol station shop, they were apprehended whilst trying to break in to Hobbycraft a short time later. A sat nav was stolen from a silver Volkswagen whilst parked in Heathlee Avenue between 16.00 on Thursday 16th April and 13.05 on Friday 17th April, the front passenger window was smashed. A shed was broken in to at Crayford Way allotments on Saturday 18th April, the padlock was broken off and tools and plants were taken. A dashcam was stolen from a red Skoda whilst parked in Crayford High Street on Sunday 19th April at 23.12, the front passenger window was smashed. We are still in a period of lockdown, unless you are a keyworker, please don't go out unless it is necessary to purchase food/medicines or to take daily exercise with members of your own household. Please stay safe". Erith ward:- "This week we have been regularly visiting all the shops in Erith which I am pleased to add they have all been coping very well and people lining up have been extremely civilised. We will be carrying on visiting all the shops daily around Erith. Again this week crimes are lower than normal, we just need to not let any guards down, if you are going out please remember not to leave any items in you cars, even on lockdown items are still being removed from vehicles. If you go on bike rides and leave your bike for any amount of time for example to enter a shop to get a drink, Lock the bike up!. It takes less than a few seconds for an unlocked bike to be taken. After this lockdown I am hoping to acquire more bike marking kits and I will run a bike making event for local residents. I know this weather has been lovely but if you are sitting on a public bench watching the world go by enjoying the sunshine we will be asking you to go home, we are only doing this to keep everyone as safe as we can. This isn't something we are enjoying asking. Also Erith team have been patrolling Northumberland Heaths ward due to staffing numbers on that ward". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Another good week – Crime levels are down. A community Protection Notice Warning has been issued to a Landlord within Northumberland Park Road. This is aimed to prevent unreasonable behaviour that is having a negative impact on the local community. Hopefully this will prevent anti-social behaviour such as loud music .The residents have also been referred to ASB unit within Bexley Council. If you've having a problem with loud music, rowdy parties or barking dogs in your neighbourhood, your council can help https://mybexley.bexley.gov.uk/service/Noise_pollution. Officers completed stop and searches on two males seen loitering on Londonderry Parade, Stelling Road, Erith .One male was found to be in possession of cannabis. There has been a rise in domestic incidents within the Borough. If you are a victim of a domestic incident please see our twitter page for advice @MPSNorthHeath or speak to a member of the National Domestic Abuse Helpline team at any time, day or night 08082000247 or contact 999 if it's an emergency. We have had reports of Youth congregating and smoking drugs in Northumberland Heath Recreational Grounds and Streamway Erith. Officers have been completing patrols within these hots spot areas. If you see this happening please contact 101 and make us aware. Thank you to our NHS colleagues, those working within the ambulance service, all of the people that are helping to come together and make our communities as safe as they can be in this terrible crisis".

The photo above (click on it for a larger view) shows fly tipped compost and plant bedding material that was illegally dumped in Appold Street, Erith late on Friday night by persons unknown. If you witnessed this criminal act, please contact me in confidence, and I will pass the information on to the Police and Bexley Council. Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. Slade Green and Northend ward:- "No notable crimes reported in the last week. 9 stop and searches have been made and one male found in possession of drugs near Grange House. A Community Resolution (official warning letter) was issued. Several groups have been moved on from a few places in the ward (Rainbow Road, Hollywood Way park, Frobisher Road) but as a general rule it seems that most people seem to be sticking to the rules and staying in so a big thanks from us. While we are giving out thanks, we would like to say a huge thanks to Mel, Sonya and everyone else helping Slade Green Big Local who, everyday, have a foodbank running from the hall of St Augustines and have been delivering food and activity packs to many residents and not just locally. Leaflets are being delivered where possible and anyone who wishes to help or contribute can pop along to the church to find out more or look up Slade Green Big Local on social media. If you do visit they are following social distancing guidelines. But a fantastic effort by a brllliant local group must be applauded and we wish them all the very best. St Augustines services are broadcasting live on Facebook and Zoom every Sunday from 1030am, anyone can watch, we will be this Sunday. There are prayer services too each day at 9am and 9pm. Lastly, please remember to stay indoors and save lives. Stay safe everyone". Thamesmead East ward:- "On Friday 17/04/20 at 6:15pm an attempted theft of a motorcycle occurred in Wolvercote Road.Sunday 19/04/20 between the hours of 9:15am and 3:30pm a Ford transit vehicle was stolen from Leatherbottle Green. There has been an increase in theft of vehicle number plates. Consider purchasing a set of Anti - Theft screws or bolts for number plates Between Saturday 18/04/20 at 11:00pm and 8:00am on Sunday 19/4/20 the outer pane of a double glazed window was smashed to a property in Maran Way. Sunday 19/04/20 whilst on cycle patrol on Manorway Green, a member of the public spoke to PC Pruden regarding a motor scooter, found parked in an alleyway in Goldcrest Close. Vehicle checks carried out by PC Pruden, came back to an address in Bledlow Close, where the scooter was stolen between the hours 4;00pm and 11:pm on Saturday 18/04/20. Monday 20/04/20 Felixstowe Road, a stolen motorcycle found. PC Pruden attended the motorcycle was recovered. A set of number plates were found in Crossway Park by a local resident, stolen from a vehicle in Bexley, were collected by the team and PC Pruden delivered the plates to the rightful owner". West Heath ward:- "One attempted burglary in Abbotts Walk on Friday 17/04/20 at approximately 4am. The occupant was woken by the sound of the inner porch door being tampered with. The occupant came downstairs and saw a male dressed in a grey tracksuit at the door. The occupant shouted at the male and he ran away in the direction of Brampton Road. A black Ford Fiesta was stolen by means of a burglary in Cumberland Drive overnight on Thursday 16/04/20 20.00 – Friday 17/04/20 10.00. Entry was gained via an implement used to pop the lock on the front door. Keys to the vehicle and house keys were also stolen. Theft from motor vehicle in Gipsy Road between Tuesday 21/04/20 – Wednesday 22/04/20 06.15. It is not clear at this stage if anything has been stolen as the car was rifled through. Theft of rear lights from a Mini Cooper parked in Gipsy Road on Monday 20/04/20 between Midnight and 10am. The team have made one arrest for theft this week. The team have continued to engage and advise members of the public during the Coronavirus and moving people on if necessary".

The end video this week features local stage school Theatre Box, who before the lock down were based in The Old Library in Walnut Tree Road, run by charitable community benefit society The Exchange. Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley College on the brink.

Jane and Cliff Murphy of the Bexley Brewery, accompanied by their son Cameron, were guests of local MP David Evennett at the House of Commons on Wednesday. Their excellent BOB (Bexley's Own Beer) is now being sold in the Strangers Bar in the Palace of Westminster. Bearing in mind that Bexley Brewery only opened in September 2014, they have come a hell of a long way in a very short time. They have won multiple awards for the quality of their ales, and were also recognised as the best new business in Bexley last year.  Contact details for the brewery are above. I can heartily recommend them; you can usually find me visiting the brewery shop on a Friday lunchtime.

If you don't already read The Thamesmead Grump, then I would strongly advise you to do so. Richard produces some very interesting posts, and the quality of his photography is second to none. This week Richard covers the threat posed to the Crossness Nature Reserve, which is now under threat of being virtually wiped out by a massive development proposed by Cory Environmental on part of the brownfield site next to the reserve. If this were to go ahead, it would completely overwhelm the designated nature reserve and destroy most of the last remaining grazing marshes in South East London. Richard writes: "As part of a campaign against this proposal, there is going to be photoshoot at the nature reserve at 10:30am on Friday 1st April (this is not a hoax) where we hope to get as many people as possible for a group photograph that can be used for press release. There will be banners and Skylark kites for protesters to wave so please do come along if you can and bring your friends and family too. You can find directions easily by Googling Crossness Nature Reserve". I fully support both Richard, and the campaign to protect and preserve the nature reserve. If you get the chance, please do go along to support this worthwhile cause.

You may recall that a while ago I wrote an extensive piece on the rogue biker gang Bike Life TV UK, and how they had been causing all kinds of mayhem in Lower Belvedere, Abbey Wood and Thamesmead. I knew that the Police were well aware of the illegal activities of the gang, and had plans to take action against them. On Thursday morning Bexley police released the following statement “An operation was carried out on 28th February utilising approximately 40 officers from various specialist units across the Metropolitan Police Service. This included officers from the Roads and Transport Policing Command, the Territorial Support Group and local officers from Bexley. A group of 20 motor cycles were identified early by unmarked Police vehicles travelling to the area. The group were stopped dealt with by Police resulting in a large number of vehicle seizures for offences such as no insurance and no MOT. A large number of fixed penalty notices were also issued and several riders were reported and summonsed for court for various traffic offences. 4 arrests were also made for offences such as Burglary, Possession of drugs and driving under the influence of drugs.  Of note one of the main organisers of the activity, who was disqualified from driving, had been identified as being involved in activity the previous week on Sunday 21st February. He was arrested early on the Sunday morning and later charged and remanded to court the next morning. He appeared at Bexley Magistrates Court on Monday 29th February and received a 12 week custodial sentence. Police have continued with the same plans for the past two weeks deploying large numbers of officers to the area. We are pleased to report that there have been no incidents involving motor cycle related Anti-Social behaviour for three weeks running. The tactics will continue moving forward and robust action taken against anyone found engaging in such activity in the future". This is all excellent news; I know of many honest, law abiding bikers who were severely ticked off by the activities of the illegal bikers, which reflected badly on the honest ones. Hopefully the members of Bike Life TV UK will realise that their activities will not be tolerated. They are a menace to both the general public and themselves.

A very strange story broke earlier this week, and it seems to have grabbed the attention of a lot of local people. A two year old girl from Greenhithe made the local news after losing her soft toy rabbit outside of the National Westminster Bank in Townley Road, Bexleyheath. An eyewitness believes he saw the toy – called Bunny, being carried away by a woman five minutes after the discovery was made - but nobody else was able to verify this.  After a public appeal, the News Shopper published the story on their website, and it quickly became the most read subject. The toy bunny was later found abandoned in Erith – whoever had taken it had then decided to dump the stolen property. Fortunately the little girl was reunited with the toy, and the story has a happy ending.

In a notification letter dated March 10, American Express warned  cardholders that their account information might well have been exposed after a third-party service provider suffered a data breach. They sent an email to card owners which said "Account information of some of our Card Members, including some of your account information, may have been involved. It is important to note that American Express owned or controlled systems were not compromised by this incident,"  The third-party provider, which isn't named, is engaged by several merchants. Cardholders should expect that their account number, name, and other card details were compromised. The interesting aspect of this notification is that the incident being referenced by American Express happened on Saturday, December 7, 2013. It isn't clear why the there was such a delay. American Express says the notification is just a precaution. The fact that two and half years have elapsed since the security breach was detected and the announcement was made is extremely worrying. Any damage will have been long done – it really makes me wonder what security notification policies a large financial services organisation such as American Express have in place.

An interesting story has come to light this week, with a result that I must admit did somewhat surprise me. The survey results on the Transport for London proposals for the East of London river crossings have now been published. Consultation on the proposals, which closed last month, showed that 88 per cent of people who responded support a new crossing linking Thamesmead and Beckton, or Belvedere to Rainham. Around 3,500 (77 per cent) support new crossings at both locations, which TfL says would cater for public transport and road users and help secure London’s future success. Bearing in mind the anti-river crossing campaigns run by both Bexley Council and the campaign group Bexley Against River Crossings (BARC), the results are pretty conclusive. It would seem to me that after open consultation, both Bexley Council and BARC have demonstrably shown that they don’t have a mandate on the matter. BARC in particular seem to have positioned themselves against mainstream public opinion with their policy to keep Bexley isolated from the rest of London in order to “preserve its character”. In an interview with the Bexley Times, as spokesperson for BARC was quoted as saying "Overall the consultation was inadequate and certainly not fit for purpose. More than two million people will suffer because of the crossings - 4500 respondents is hardly representative. Further, the consultation was flawed and gave the misleading impression that the road crossings would reduce congestion; it is clear that many people responded on that basis. There is overwhelming evidence that this kind of road capacity always increases congestion and destroys communities, yet the consultation did not tell people that, nor did it point out the dangers posed by the increased pollution and decimation of housing that will result from the crossings.” Personally I understand and can sympathise with the sentiments, but it would seem that the public have sent a very strong message that they want more crossings. Getting 4500 responses is actually very high; these kind of consultations tend to have very low levels of response, as most people don't care enough to bother giving feedback, or they don't find out about the survey until they read the results. I think BARC overestimate the level of resident engagement. As if this was not enough, rent a gob champagne socialist Russell Brand has got involved. A third river crossing has been mooted to join East Thurrock and Eastern Gravesend. Brand made the following statement on Wednesday “To build this new crossing they’re going to have mess with green belt land, dig up green belt land, destroy some new homes that were built for people, those people are going to have to be jogged on from their homes, even though they’ve just moved in. And the thing that touches me most - is there’s a school called Treetops which helps kids with Asperger’s, autism and mild learning difficulties of all varieties - they were going to expand that school that school had won its dream for expansion but now not only is the expansion scrapped that school is going to be subsumed in fumes and pollution unless we do something to stop it. Now this was the birthplace of the peasant revolution Thurrock, that’s where Wat Taylor who led the peasants - and I’m not making any comparison - that’s where he came from”. The points made about Treetops School are very valid, and would normally deserve serious debate and examination. The problem is the person who has raised them. Brand would have been better off encouraging another public personality with better credibility taking on the campaign. For me, and many others Russell Brand is like Chris Evans – an instant turn – off; if I catch him on the TV or radio I immediately switch channels. He removes credibility from any argument against a road crossing East of the QEII bridge. It is not like he has any recent connections with the area around Thurrock nowadays – he famously moved out as soon as he was able. Nowadays his main residence is in the Hollywood Hills in California. I occasionally see Russell Brand on the London bound platform at Greenwich Station – when I then studiously ignore the blatant self-publicist. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I have received some rather worrying news from one of my confidential sources. I have been informed that Bexley College is in dire financial straits, and that things are so bad the college may be forced into a hostile takeover by Bromley College, who are already taking over the failing and bankrupt Greenwich Community College. My contact tells me that the information about the terrible state of the finances of Bexley College is virtually unknown outside of college senior management, and a few people in Bexley Council. I have been shown meeting minutes from 6th July 2015 , which show Bexley College predicted a deficit of £689,000 for 2015/16 (college financial years are August to July) and a cash loss of £660,000,  and with £2 million in reserves, it would leave a cash balance of just £1.34m. However, it then said by the end of July 2017 it would be down to £500,000. A predicted loss of £840,000 is forecast in 2016/17. The “smoking gun” can be seen here – the takeover is being sold to Councillors as a “merger” but my source tells me that this is for political and face – saving reasons. I also understand that the final decision is being made on Monday evening during an extraordinary meeting of the governors of Bexley College. “Bromley College seems to be on a bid for world domination” was something told to me by another of my very well – placed and reliable informants. I hope to have more on this story next week.

Much to nobody’s surprise, Southeastern Trains have been named as the worst performing train company in respect of lateness and cancellations. Four Southeastern trains run up to two hours late every day, making up seven per cent of the country's delayed trains, according to Office of Rail and Road statistics. Think of it. One relatively small train operating company that has managed to rack up a whole seven percent of the entire UK’s train delays and cancellations. If there was an award for running a terrible rail service, surely Southeastern would win it . By contrast, Transport for London (TfL) was the best performing operator - only one in every 7,288 trains were significantly delayed, just 11 journeys-a-year. Surely yet another reason for Southeastern to lose their franchise to TfL. What do you think? Would a takeover by TfL be a good thing, or would it be substituting a known for an unknown? Before anyone points out that some of the blame for the delays and cancellations needs to fall at the feet of Network Rail, I agree; however, other rail companies also have to deal with Network Rail, and by and large they make a far better fist of it than Southeastern. As recently said by local MP Teresa Pearce – “I have just one train line running through my constituency, two tracks, three stations, one train rail line, what could go wrong? Well, Southeastern could go wrong. Before Southeastern we had Connex and Connex was terrible and we thought Southeastern would be better and we were wrong. I have a real appreciation of the frustration of the what it’s like to stand on a platform in the certain knowledge of the uncertainty of the train service.” Well said. Connex were indeed terrible, but Southeastern are demonstrably worse in almost every respect – and I speak as a regular commuter. Extensive works both in relation to the rebuilding of London Bridge station and further engineering activities on the Elizabeth Line between Plumstead and Abbey Wood will mean that there will be no trains whatsoever in and out of London over the long weekend. According to the Southeastern engineering works website:-"Planned engineering work will take place. Between Plumstead and Dartford From 04:00, Saturday 19 March 2016 to 02:00, Monday 21 March 2016. All lines will be closed. All services will be revised. Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green will not be served. . A replacement bus service will be in operation between Plumstead and Dartford.” Unlike many other parts of Greater London, there is little in the way of alternative public transport – we don’t have the tube, or even DLR, and to be honest, when the North Kent Line is closed, the only realistic option for travel into London is to get the bus to Woolwich Arsenal, and then pick up the Docklands Light Railway from there. I completely understand the need for line closures when the scale of the engineering work is taken into consideration, it just seems to me that the project managers think that nobody needs to travel into or out of London at weekends, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The Maggot Sandwich has been published every Sunday afternoon for what in July will be ten years; in all that time I have never missed an update – even when I lost my broadband connection at home on one occasion, I headed up to my mother’s house to make sure that an update did indeed get posted. Over all those years, and a total this week of 580 weekly updates, the entry that has had the most visits was a relatively recent one. You may recall that back in August last year I wrote a piece called The “Funky Clock” scam. Well, that piece got picked up by Google and made it onto the front page of for anyone that searched for anything to do with “Funky Clock”. As a result of people curious to find more about the widely publicised online fraud, that one blog update has now has had nearly 30,000 hits. I had Emails from a number of people who had been scammed by the “Funky Clock” website, and some of their stories were heart-breaking. Because of the adverse publicity the “Funky Clock” scam got, the criminals behind it went underground. I think they also got some serious heat from the lawyers employed by the BBC, as their website used the BBC website layout and graphics in an attempt to fool people into thinking it was legitimately from the BBC. For some time the scammers went quiet, but I am afraid that I have to report that they are now back; this time they call themselves “Happy Crocky”, and they still have the colour palette and design of the BBC News website, though they have removed the BBC branded logos. You can see the result in the screen capture above. In case you were unaware of the nature of the “Funky Clock” / “Happy Crocky” scam, it essentially functions thus:  Links can be found on “respectable” websites such as tabloid newspapers and other showbiz and gossip sites; the links lead to a website which appears to be a legitimate news site such as the BBC, where a story claims that a company is “giving away” brand new, current model iPhones for £1. The thing is, the website is actually a “honey trap” designed to fool readers into thinking it is legitimate. In fact it has been created by the scammers to redirect the gullible to their scam website. The second site used to be  called “Funky Clock” and is now “Happy Crocky” which runs “special offers” amongst “skill and speed” competitions, where participants purchase credits to use to play games, the winner of which supposedly wins an iPhone 6. When you sign up for the “free” service, you are prompted to enter your bank details “for verification purposes”. What is only displayed in microscopic text is that the “free” period only lasts for three days, and that after that Funky Clock / Happy Crocky will debit your bank account by £74 a month, from now until the end of time. No cheap iPhones, no deals – the whole thing is a massive scam. The new “Happy Crocky” site even uses the same photos and much of the same text from its predecessor – it is definitely being run by the same shameless bunch of thieving scumbags as before. It would appear that many Internet Service Providers, notably including Virgin have been duped into forwarding “Genuine offer” messages from Funky Clock Happy Crocky to their subscribers, thus giving a veneer of apparent respectability to the confidence trick. This is a classic case of “if it seems too good to be true, it generally is”. Be warned – treat anything that says they are giving away high value items for next to nothing as a con until it can be verifiably proved otherwise (a very fat chance indeed). Unfortunately the criminals will continue such scams for as long as there are vulnerable people to fall prey to them. This was only the first of two scams that have come back out of the woodwork over the last week; a second, much longer running and insidious scam has come to my attention. I have been receiving spam messages that have been successfully filtered out by Google, but every so often I like to sift through the spam, looking for anything of particular interest, prior to permanently deleting them. I came across the message which you can see below from “Chris” – a self-described “Astrologer, Psychic Medium and Parapsychologist” (ahem) the scam involves relieving vulnerable and credulous people of large amounts of their hard earned cash. The composition of the Email graphic is very interesting – the photo of Chris himself is hysterical – the theatrical bar of light over his eyes to symbolise his “special” insight, and the horrendously Photoshopped hair which makes him look like he is wearing a hairpiece made of fibreglass! You may well have received one of his scam messages yourself. I have been tracking the activities of “Chris”, and have found the following comments made on a scam - busting website:-  "please do not ever give your credit card details to this man..or excuse for a man !! be warned .. how can he sleep at night ?? i'm embarrassed to write this here but i must to warn others. he has unlawfully just taken $28 nzd out of my account just after christmas after i was told i could unsubscribe to his emails/hypno sessions (people you are quite capable of helping yourself find friendship and improve your life without his lies) i'm a honest vulnerable financially single mum and now thanks to him i'm broke !! they just took another $115 nzd out of my account without my consent even tho the emails say you can unsubscribe … 10 emails later no response.. been to my bank and will take this further.. how dare he prey on vulnerable people .. my Dad had a stroke recently and now in financial strife .. i've received nothing from him but a bunch of crap emails and exactly as others describe… “i had dreams about you… i care … yadeyada… my friend will pay half… you can have the reading for free… blah blah.. i heard from his so called personal assistant and he said he would stop emails 2 days later my account cleared out of $150 for what sweet fa (excuse me) you @#4$@!!! how can you sleep at night. yes i made a mistake huge lesson learned Scam artist big time … please don't ever send any bank debts to this guy.. i will expose him and please be weary people i got sucked in and i feel so embarrassed and upset o have no money for food or bills this week and i work 3 contract jobs in health care … take care people". Aside from the atrocious spelling and grammar, the message is clear. Avoid.

Here is a guest piece by Maggot Sandwich occasional contributor Dana Whiffen, and his views on War Memorials:- "Listening to the radio recently with a phone-in programme there was a lady saying how annoyed she was when she witnessed parents allowing their children to climb all over a memorial while they sat fiddling with their mobile-phones, she told them off pointing out their lack of respect, although she doubted if they understood her. This was followed by another call from another lady saying that she did not know what all the fuss was about and who cares about memorials, she felt that 90% of the population knew nothing about them and that in a few years no-one would be interested or would care. This comment infuriated me and I decided to investigate their origin and design further and a book that I was reading pointed me towards the Dartford War Memorial. This opened up another door as it turned out this wonderful monument was created by sculptor Arthur George Walker. He was selected after the Dartford War Memorial Committee had seen his soldier memorial in Sevenoaks and they asked him to use a similar British Tommy figure design for Dartford. It was built in 1922 to commemorate Dartford’s fallen soldiers from the Great War, it stands tall pointed towards Dartford library and attracts many admiring glances from passers-by. Although it was built for WWI, it now carries additional dedications to the fallen from WW2 and the Korean War. Such was the influence of Arthur Walkers “Tommy in full battledress” he went on to create similar memorials for Ironbridge in Shropshire, Chesham in Buckinghamshire and Heston in Middlesex as well as Sevenoaks and Dartford. His most famous work though was for the creation of the Derby War Memorial (of a mother holding her baby) and The Florence Nightingale Memorial near Waterloo Station in London. Arthur George Walker was born in 1861 and he died in 1939, he also created statues and plaques along with his numerous memorials across the country that will hopefully leave a lasting legacy for future generations that will outlive the disrespectful and apathetic. There are many other war memorials throughout London and the UK that could well have equal this wonderful design, why not investigate you local war memorial. Those that don’t care or are totally ignorant of our history seem to be absorbed in total oblivion and selfishness unaware of the sacrifices made so that they can live their lives this way. I hope they are only the minority but fear they may not be! The Dartford War Memorial is now Grade 2 listed". Interesting stuff; if anyone has special insight into local history, and would like to share it with others, please do get in contact with me. 

The end video this week is by way of a tribute to the late keyboard wizard Keith Emerson, who recently died. See him with progressive rock giants Emerson, Lake and Palmer in their 40th anniversary concert, filmed in London back in 2010. Comments below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.