The opening.

The photos above were taken by me on Thursday evening at the official opening of the new MW Solicitors offices located in the refurbished former Yates Wine Lodge building in Mayplace Road West, Bexleyheath. You may recall that I recently wrote about the history of the landmark building, and the fact that it had laid empty and seemingly abandoned for many years. I was happy to see a local company take the building on, and sensitively convert it into bright and airy office space. MW Solicitors invited me to the opening event, which was attended by Bexley Mayor Peter Reader, and Lady Mayoress Irene Reader, and also by Bexleyheath and Crayford MP David Evennett, as you can see from the photos above - please click on any for a larger view. MW Solicitors had relocated from a smaller office above some shops further along Bexleyheath Broadway, but the new, much more prominent location seems to be working well for them already; I was told that the level of "walk in" enquiries from potential new clients had increased dramatically since the new high profile office opened at the beginning of March. You can see their website by clicking here. 

It would seem that Bexley Council is quietly investing in property in order to try and boost its coffers. A reader who wishes to remain anonymous has sent me several documents that show Bexley Council agreeing to purchase a number of properties around the borough. Their plan seems to be to invest in the businesses in the buildings in the short term, and in the long term to redevelop the existing building structures to create more housing. You may recall that when I wrote about the proposed new Lidl store in Fraser Road Erith, on what is now the Atlas Industrial Estate, I mentioned that the adjoining Wickes DIY store lease had been bought by an unknown buyer; it turns out that the buyer was Bexley Council. I am in possession of a document regarding the proposed purchase which says of the Wickes site:- "This transaction is seen as a strategic acquisition that would provide the Council with the freehold interest in a significant site and bring other regeneration advantages in the borough. The property was advertised for sale with a closing date of 12th March 2018 and the Council made a non-binding offer for the freehold". The document then goes on to say:-" The rationale for the purchase aligns with the Council’s growth strategy and offers the opportunity for Council intervention to kick start and dictate the need for quality redevelopment in Erith. In the short term, rental income from the site will meet the Council’s financing costs. In the longer term if the site is redeveloped the Council will ensure the site is developed to high quality design standards, bringing a step change in the built environment in the town. This will help to drive further high quality developments across the town centre. In addition the Council will be able to ensure the site is developed appropriately, bringing the right tenure mixes and commercial uses which should serve the local community and attract a new demographic to Erith. The Council is committed to delivering meaningful and sustainable regeneration in Erith and owning the site would give the Council flexibility to drive redevelopment when the time is right in partnership with a developer or as part of a future joint venture". Well that would seem to be clear enough. In a second document that I was sent by the same anonymous source, it would seem that Bexley Council have also purchased the freehold of the Job Centre in Bexleyheath Broadway. The document concerning this purchase states:- "This decision relates to the purchase of a property in an important location at 186-194 Broadway in Bexleyheath. This transaction is seen as a strategic acquisition that would provide the Council with the freehold interest in a significant site close to Bexleyheath Town Centre and bring other regeneration advantages in the borough". The document then goes on to say:- "The freehold extent of the site and premises to be purchased is outlined red on the appended plan and extends to 0.138 hectares (0.348 acres). The premises comprise a 4 storey purpose built office block believed to have been constructed in the 1970’s. The premises currently provide approximately 22,500 sf (2090 sq m) of office and ancillary storage space together with some parking. The premises are currently let to a central government provider under an existing lease terms and are used as a Job Centre. The premises have the benefit of planning permission for conversion to residential use and to add another storey to provide a total of 59 units. It is intended that the existing occupier should be retained in the premises in the short term, following acquisition and that there will be a project to assist the relocation of the Job Centre service to another part of the borough. The premises may also be required to assist other Council regeneration plans. The Council will be able to realise residential development opportunities for the site as required in the future. The financial details of the proposal and cost implications are contained in the Exempt Appendix. Initially the income from the existing letting will provide an open market rent that will meet the Council’s borrowing costs. In the longer term the Council will be able to make use of the premises as required and have the option to develop out and recoup the purchase price either from the sale of the residential units following a conversion of the block or by disposing of the premises". The document summary states:-"The growth, regeneration and strategic benefits of acquiring this site create a strong argument for the Council to acquire the site and premises in order to retain the Job Centre in its current premises in the short term and to enjoy the benefit that the investment opportunity affords. This, together with the financial case is considered to outweigh the risks outlined in the financial implications". It would seem that Bexley Council are being quite clever; the financial grant they get from central government has been reduced substantially over the last few years, and the council have been forced to make cutbacks accordingly. By buying the Job Centre, they are able to then charge The Department of Work and Pensions rent for the building, thus clawing back some money indirectly from central government in the short term, and then by redeveloping the site, they can not only make money from the sale of any residential properties subsequently constructed on the central Bexleyheath site, but they will also be able to charge council tax to the residents. Bearing in mind the current Job Centre building is coming to the end of its useful life - it was refurbished a few years ago, but this has done little to disguise the fact the building is worn out and does need to be replaced. My concern is that where will any replacement Job Centre be located? Although the current building is end of life, I am worried that Bexley Council would choose a less well situated location for the relocation. Westminster House is easily reached by many different bus routes that service all of the borough, and thus the Job Centre can be reached by those using public transport. Any new location needs to also be well served by public transport. We saw from the debacle that was the proposed closure of Bexleyheath Police Station to be replaced by Marlowe House in Sidcup, that the main barrier to this was the relatively poor public transport links from the North of Bexley that would have effectively stopped many people from accessing the Police. Thankfully this information was used to good effect to stop the closure of Bexleyheath Police Station - which is centrally located and easily reached by public transport from all parts of the borough. I just hope that any replacement Job Centre is not located "out in the sticks" in order to keep costs down. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Council has announced that the level of illegal fly - tipping is increasing, especially in the North of the borough. There were 174 fly-tipping incidents in January, an increase from 144 in December. The number has also risen when compared to January 2016 and January 2017. One area that has been especially hit hard by criminal rubbish dumpers is Ray Lamb Way on the Slade Green Marshes. Things have become so bad that local residents and the management of the nearby Erith Yacht Club have demanded a meeting with Bexley Council representatives at the site of the very worst of the fly tipping. As you can see in the photo above, the road had been actually blocked by fly tippers, who drive along the road, then raise the load area of their tipper van so that the waste carried in the back drops out onto the road surface. As well as being completely illegal, it is also dangerous to other road users. The on - site meeting is scheduled for Wednesday the 11th of April at 11am at the junction of Ray Lamb Way and Ness Road. Hopefully an action plan can be put together to combat these criminal fly tippers. More on this story next week.

The Association of Bexley Charities '78 is holding a Spring Fair at the United Reformed Church, Geddes Place, Bexleyheath DA6 7DJ (near the Broadway Shopping Centre) on Saturday 14th April 2018 from 9.45 am  - 1.00 pm. Local charities will be selling, amongst other things, CDs, DVDs, Jewellery, Books, Cakes, Jams, Model Railways, Collectables and Children's Games. Stallholders will include Alzheimer's Society, Bexley Branch; Bexley Downs Syndrome Group; Bexley Smile; Cats Protection, Bexley and District Branch; The Children's Society; Demelza Hospice Care for Children; Motor Neurone Disease Association; Dementia Carers Group, Greenwich and Bexley.

The conversion of the accommodation space above The White Hart pub in Erith High Street has now been completed. There is one three bedroomed apartment on the first floor, and two, two bedroomed apartments on the second floor, which have now been advertised for rent. You can read about the three bedroomed apartment by clicking here. You can read about one of the two bedroomed apartments by clicking here. You can read about the other two bedroomed apartment by clicking here. All three flats are very expensive by Erith rental standards, but they do seem to have been constructed and finished to a very high standard. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Following the welcome news last week that the back street pub The Volunteer in Bexleyheath is reopening now under the private ownership of a group of local shareholders, who will operate the pub as an independent entity. Some rather less than welcome news has come to light last week regarding what used to be an excellent community pub in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. The Fox has been the subject of a shooting incident over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. Reports say that two men wearing balaclavas entered the pub on the evening of Saturday March the 31st, one of the couple produced a semi automatic pistol and fired a shot. Nobody was hurt. Understandably the pub visitors were shocked, and many rushed to get out of the building; shortly thereafter armed Police arrived, but the gunmen had vanished. Many years ago I used to be a regular at The Fox, and then it was a well run, quiet and respectable pub where there was never a hint of trouble. Unfortunately over the years the pub has changed hands several times, and each time it seemed to become less well managed, and the clientele has changed. I have had reports in the past from several readers saying that they have witnessed drug dealers carrying out transactions quite openly in the gents toilets. In fact one anonymous witness did suggest to me that the drug dealing was so blatant that he suspected that not only must the pub management be aware of it, but that they might even be in on it. I could not possibly confirm or deny this, but the fact that a former Fox regular could tell me that he no longer felt safe in the pub due to the amount of illegal activity taking place in the establishment does make me wonder.  The gunmen who fired the shot in the pub I would guess have some kind of dispute with persons known to frequent The Fox. I have not been in the place for a couple of years now, and this confirms my own feelings that I will not be returning for the foreseeable future. If you have any information regarding the shooting incident and alleged drug dealing in The Fox, please contact me; any information will be treated in the strictest of confidence, and you can remain completely anonymous of course. 

This week sees the 20th anniversary of the founding of Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association - though it was not called that name back then. Chairman of the association Dana Wiffen has written the following guest article about the formation of the group:- "Back in 1993 a small group of local residents in the Belvedere area decided to start up a Neighbourhood Watch Group in Bexley, which included Mike Clinch, Linda Barnes, Ray Hudson and Ray Darsey, the latter two are still on the committee today. This small band of people together with various Ward Bobbies as they were called then, started to recruit NW members which became known as street Coordinators. With the support of Bexley Police and Bexley Council they were given an office in Bexleyheath Police Station and a Council paid a part-time staff member to help run the office, when the staff member was withdrawn by the council NW was given the opportunity to apply for funding for their own part time staff member, which is Claire Tack. By 1998 they had grown to a reasonable number of around 300 members and the then committee decided to apply to become an Association. As Bexleyheath Police Station recruited more officers NW were asked to move to Belvedere Police Station and remained there until 2012 when the MET decided to close the police station and sell the building, at this point NW's future was unsure but when we were invited to move things gradually improved. So Bexley Neighbourhood Watch moved back to Bexleyheath and were given a small office, by this time recruitment was rising fast mainly due to the increase in crime and the gradual reduction in the number of police officers. Over the last few years they have expanded also setting up several non residential watches to combat crime in different areas, these include ShopWatch, HoundWatch, PlotWatch, FaithWatch & HorseWatch, all with the exception of HoundWatch like up the various groups of Shops, Allotments, Places of Worship & Stables to ensure they are aware of crime in their areas, while HoundWatch a police idea was set-up to recruit dog walkers to report anything suspicious while they are walking their pets. At the moment we have a healthy committee number of 12, we also have office volunteers that work to keep the office running Monday to Friday sometimes between 9am-3pm as the workload of our growing membership seems to dictate. We are still attempting to recruit a sign putter upper as our previous volunteer has retired after 6 years". 

With that, we neatly segue into the weekly local safety and security updates from the aforementioned Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly from Barnehurst ward:- "Update for the wonderful ward of Barnehurst: Unfortunately we have had two crimes of note reported this week, the first an arson to a motor vehicle. On Tuesday 27th March at 2.30am police received a call via the fire brigade to a car on fire in Halcot Avenue, the vehicle a black Audi TT was believed to have been deliberately targeted whilst parked in a small car park in the street The second is a burglary which occurred in Mayplace Road East on the 3rd April between 1pm – 2.30pm. Suspect (s) have forced open a front wooden door to a semi detached property causing damage to the frame and have stolen a purse containing cash and credit cards from inside. It is possible that the suspects were disturbed as one of the occupiers was asleep upstairs after having worked a night shift. If you have any information about these or any other crimes please contact the Barnehurst policing team or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Our next drop in session will be at Barnehurst Golf Course on the 11th April at 11am. Join us for a chat about any local issues that may be concerning you. As always follow us on twitter @MPSBarnehurst and Facebook at Barnehurst Police for local news and crime prevention advice". Belvedere ward:-"This week we have assisted both Erith SNT and Northumberland Heath with follow up visits to victims of crime and also assisted with a weapon sweep around that Northumberland Heath recreation ground after a recent incident in Brook Street. We have continued with our regular patrols of the Belvedere Park estate and are in the process of speaking once again with the management company of the site to help in making the area a safer place for residents. This comes after recent damage to several doors within Moyle House, where we found communal doors once again unsecured, allowing anybody access from the street. We would urge residents of Belvedere Park to ensure that communal areas are secure when entering or leaving buildings. If you witness any suspicious behaviour, please let your local Policing team know. There was a burglary on Friday 30th March in Erith Road, whilst the residents were away from their home. This investigation is ongoing, however the team have visited the residents to provide support and advice. We are now in spring and are anticipating the rise in nuisance motorbikes again around the Norman Road area. If you start to see off road bikes on the roads or large groups gathering in this area please report it via the contact methods below. We have been made aware of anti-social street drinking again in Picardy Street. If anyone knows who these people please contact us. Otherwise if you are experiencing an issue with this behaviour then please report it direct to us, via our website www.met.police.uk or by calling 101". Brampton ward:- "Brampton has not had a Burglary now for 2 weeks which is good news. We have however had: 1 x ABH in Long Lane , the victim was head-butted and kicked in the face investigation ongoing; 1 x common assault in Franklin Road; A making off without payment in Long Lane; 2 x Public order offences in Bristow Road and Rydal Drive. The team whilst searching an area came across motorbike that was shown to be stolen this has been taken to a South London vehicle pound and will be forensically tested for any evidence to identify a suspect. We have had a message via NHW regarding unknown persons knocking on doors and asking trivial questions and then leaving. Brampton have had no other incidents reported to us, and as stated earlier no Burglaries in over 2 weeks now". Colyers ward:- "In the past week Colyers have had one burglary where items were stolen from a room in a House of Multiple Occupancy in Frinsted Road sometime between Friday 23rd and Thursday 29th March whilst occupant was away. There was also a theft from a dwelling in Edinburgh Court overnight 29th -30th March where a purse was stolen from a guest staying with their friend overnight. And on the 1st April a front door was criminally damaged with paint, this has been investigated and arrest has been made. The good news is we have not had any reports of motor vehicle crimes for the 3rd week running and we thank you for your continued vigilance in keeping your cars secure. On the ASB front Colyers have been busy visiting parents and issuing Community Protection Notice warnings to youths seen and stopped in Hampton House which is our ASB hotspot. Our patrols continue and seem to have calmed things down". Crayford ward:- "There has been a marked increase in theft from motor vehicle and vehicle interference in Crayford in the last week and there is a strong possibility that the same individual is responsible for most of them. At about 03.00 on 29/03/2018 in Woolbrook Road, a white male was seen on CCTV to use a device to unlock a grey Range Rover and Black Audi, searching the two cars and making off when the security light came on. This road is on a quiet estate and the resident has made their own enquiries and it is clear that this male also walked up to other vehicles as he was captured on home CCTV around the estate. Similar offences have occurred in other parts of Crayford. Overnight between 22.00 on 28/03/2018 and 07.00 on 29/03/2018 a grey Audi A4 was searched but nothing stolen in Hillside Road. Between 16.00 on 30/03/018 and 05.00 on 31/03/2018 a Citroen Berlingo was broken in Crayford High Street. A quantity of company tools and a bag of personal clothing were stolen. Interestingly, between 15.00 on 29/03/2018 and 18.00 on 02/04/2018 a white Volkswagon Transporter had a side door damaged and a quantity of cordless drills were removed and a pile of jackets left in the vehicle not belonging to the victim. On 28/03/2018 a group of males were seen on cctv in Iron Mill Lane stealing a ladder, although it was not locked away it had been out of sight. On 30/03/2018 at approx. 23.30 a male was walking through an alley leading from Shearwood Crescent to Thames Road when 3 males approached him and tried to steal his mobile phone. One suspect had a knife and the male received a small cut and was treated by ambulance colleagues but declined going to hospital. A young male was walking along Heath Road on 30/03/2018 at approx. 19.30 when an unknown MALE ran past him snatching £30 he was holding in his hand. He wasn’t injured and no threats were made but it was a timely reminder to keep anything valuable out of sight of the opportunist thief. On 28/03/2018 between 12.00 and 12.15 a Jaguar was seen on cctv being damaged by an unknown implement taken from nearby whilst parked at the rear of Crayside Dental Studio. The male was seen running off toward Swaisland Drive. Youths were seen climbing on scaffolding at Town Hall Square and 4 of the 8 youths have been identified by name and their parents will be advised of their dangerous and anti social behaviour. A motorcycle stolen from Beech Walk in November last year was located by Crayford and Brampton officers in Bristow Road down an alley way. It had been covered up and the number plate was broken where the suspect had attempted to disguise it. Other than minor damage to a light it was in good condition and the owner has been notified. We have been issued our personal tablets now and I have sat in the library this afternoon typing this and was able to speak with several residents whilst here". Erith ward:- "We hope you all had a good Easter Holiday weekend. It is half term at the moment, we will be out in Erith town centre most days, keeping an eye on any groups of kids hanging about in any ASB manor. Below are some crimes from the last week of note. Attempted residential burglary on 26/03/2018 Christchurch Avenue - Somebody has attempted to force entry. Making off 28/03/2018 Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, James Watt Way, - Suspect filled vehicle with fuel and made off without attempting to pay. Criminal damage to a vehicle on 29/03/2018, Bullbanks Road - Unknown Suspect has thrown a ball bearing through the back window of the victim's vehicle while it was parked outside her home address. Making off on 30/03/2018 from Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, James Watt Way - unknown suspect has filled up with petrol and then driven out making no attempt to pay Shoplift >£199 on 27/03/2018 at Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc, James Watt Way, - By suspect entering the store early in the morning as the shifts are changing over and then filling a trolley and leaving the store with £169.17 worth of goods . Stopped in the car park and brought back to the store. Aggravated residential burglary on 02/04/18 in Glendale Road - Approx. 8 suspects smashed the front bay window and broke through the front door of Glendale Road, Erith. Residential burglary on 02/04/2018 in Grovebury Close - the victim returned home to find her door open and all internal doors open and items missing. Other theft 03/04/2018 Matalan, Pier Road - attempted shoplifting. Burg-Bus/Com 03/04/2018 Ocado Operating Ltd, Church Manorway - the victim had his phone stolen from within a security cabin and was kicked in the back. Victim was told he would be stabbed (No knife seen)". Lesnes Abbey ward:- "On Friday 30/03/18, from 1:00pm to Saturday 31/03/18 8:00am number plates were taken from a vehicle parked near Deluci House on the Hurst Lane estate SE2; Between the hours of 1:00pm on Saturday 31/03/18 and 12:00pm on Sunday 01/04/18 a motor vehicle was stolen from outside an address in Abbotts Walk, Bexleyheath; During the early hours of Monday 02/04/18 a vehicle ,locked and secure whilst parked in Wolvercote Road was broken into. Other News: After the local council elections on 3rd May, The ward boundaries will then be split up, Lesnes Abbey ward will go and you will be with different wards. Once these have been decided we will let you know. Date for your diary - Have a say: On Thursday 12/04/18 between the hours 03:00 pm and 04:00 pm at THE BP Connect, Harrow Manor Way, SE2 9TA - Motor Vehicle crime prevention information packs being handed out. Any Burglary or Motor Vehicle Crime prevention information wanted, please contact the Lesnes Abbey team on the details above". North End ward:- "Only crime of note this week is another knife point robbery at Erith Food and Wine shop in The Nursery. This took place at around 7.45pm Thursday evening and money was taken by the same male who has now been there 6 times and committed 13 crimes over all. This is the first incident for a few weeks now. CCTV has been collected and the Operation around this crime continues. As the local team, reassurance visits have been made as well as patrols of the area when on duty. Neighbourhood Watch newsletters have been delivered by us to our 2 anonymous watches in Hollywood Way and Jenningtree Road. We are in the process of setting up a new watch in Whitehall Lane, watch this space. Community Contact session from 10am this Friday (6th April) at the Forest Road Café. Regular patrols have been made over the marshes by Erith Yacht Club where fly tipping and off road bike issues have become a bit more prominent again. A multi-agency walkabout is planned at this location on Tuesday 11th April to look at how all partners can tackle these issues". Northumberland Heath ward:- "We hope everyone had a lovely bank holiday weekend although the weather was not kind to us! One burglary in Brook Street this week. This took place on Thursday March 30th at 9.30am. Entry was gained by forcing a UPVC door, the frame was damaged but was left intact. An untidy search of the property was conducted and the victim is not sure exactly what was stolen at this stage, but have noticed three gold rings missing. No motor vehicle crimes reported this week. We have been informed of a particularly unpleasant telephone scam this week. The victim who lives in Plaxtol Road received a call from an Asian male stating that the victim’s wife had been injured in a car accident and was in Darenth Valley Hospital. The victim’s wife had left that morning to go shopping and was yet to return so the victim was worried for her welfare. The male stated that the victim’s wife would need need to undergo an operation to insert metal rods in her legs and this would cost £300, he also stated that the victim’s daughter was in a critical condition, but then changed his story. The male tried to obtain bank details from the victim but the victim was suspicious and ended the call before reporting the incident to police. The team are patrolling the Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground regularly following the previous anti-social behaviour with motorbikes being ridden in the park, and we are pleased to say that we have not received ant further reports over the Easter weekend. The team issued one cannabis warning to an adult in Steele Walk, and a youth is under investigation following a cannabis stop in the Recreation Ground. We are continuing to hold our drop in surgeries and they will be advertised on Twitter, facebook and by posters in local business premises". Thamesmead East ward:- "26/03/18 Criminal Damage to Motor Vehicle 1900 - 1800 Hartslock Drive victim stated that overnight someone has damaged vehicles - slashed the left hand side tyres to both vehicles; 29/03/18 Taking and Driving Away 11pm Redbourne Drive - Victim reports the car has been stolen. The car has no tracker. Missing Person: On the 30/3/18 at 10pm An 81 year old elderly lady suffering from Dementia went missing from Kale Road. The subject was last seen in person by her son, he woke up the following morning to find her missing along with her Freedom Pass. Thamesmead officers conducted an area search with no trace of the female. In the early hours of 31/3/18 Croydon Officers noticed an elderly female standing at the side of the road. The female stated to officers that she was waiting for her son. Officers conducted checks and found she had been reported missing from Bexley Borough. She was taken back to her home address and reunited with her son. PC Pruden and PC Nana attended the monthly Intelligence / Information sharing meeting with Peabody Housing about issues arising from ASB to Neighbour disputes from residents; PC Pruden attended a Community Contact Session at the Link in Bazellgette Way on 3/4/18".

The end video this week is quite timely considering the earlier news about the meeting on Wednesday to crack down on local fly tippers. Here is some video captured from a vehicle dash camera which shows a man illegally dumping rubbish by a recycling hopper located in Mariner's Walk, Off Manor Road in Erith. It is clear that the man in the video knows what he is doing is illegal, due to his reaction when challenged by the vehicle driver. It is good to see someone standing up to these criminal scumbags.

Crayford Island.

The posters above are as they say, for the forthcoming "Our Erith" art exhibition, being hosted by the Friends of Christ Church, Erith. You can read more about the event, and how you can take part by visiting the "Our Erith" page of the Christ Church website here.

One of the perks of being a moderately well known local blogger is that I do tend to get sent all sorts of press releases and publicity documents before they are made available to the general public. One announcement reached me too late for last week's Maggot Sandwich update. Bexley Council have made a two decisions which will do nothing to increase their popularity with residents. Firstly they have cut the funding to Bexley Youth Services to the tune of a total of £358,000 by the end of March this year, effectively closing down much, if not all of the service. Up to twenty seven Youth Service jobs are at risk. The council claims that the restructure, which will target Bexley’s most vulnerable children - including those with special needs and those caught up in crime - is the right way forward. In the build-up to the announced cuts, an online petition against changing the structure of youth services gained more than two thousand signatures - this seems to have been in vain, as Bexley Council are steam - rollering through the cuts anyway. So much for their motto:- "Listening To You, Working for You".

The News Shopper are reporting the results of an extremely unscientific piece of data analysis that nevertheless sparks some degree of interest:- Bexley has been revealed as the happiest borough to live in London, according to tweets.  Data analysis company Tekja produced a new Twitter study which gave an insight into the capital’s happiest to saddest boroughs.  The data was collected through 50,000 tweets each day and Bexley came out on top – with Lewisham third bottom and Sutton last. The point of a tweet was determined by examining each word against a list of 2,500 English words rated for happiness from -5 (negative) to +5 (positive).  All of the results are being displayed at Somerset House’s Big Bang Data exhibition which runs until February 28. All very interesting, conversation provoking stuff, but it does not really stand up to any kind of rigorous analysis.

Word reaches me that a new shop will shortly be opening in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. Subway are opening an outlet in the vacant unit opposite the clothing store Blue Inc. I for one welcome the move; of all the “fast food” outlets, Subway offer by far the healthiest food options – and I find their offerings to be very tasty. They certainly will be a credible alternative to the salt, sugar and fat laden stuff sold by KFC and McDonald’s. Subway are far from perfect, but better than many of their competitors. I also understand that Mambocino still intend on taking the large corner unit opposite Argos (shown in the photo above - click on it for a larger view); not only does the very successful coffee shop / informal restaurant need the extra space to expand, but the new unit at the front of the shopping centre has a door that would allow customers to access the restaurant after the main shopping centre gates are closed and locked at 6pm every evening. This is the one issue that has prevented the evening opening of any business in the shopping centre. I understand that Mambocino wish to retain their current daytime premises within the centre, and to expand with an evening opening “sit down” restaurant opposite Argos. I feel that this is a very good idea; at present the only place where one can sit down to a knife and fork meal after 6pm is the café in Morrison’s – hardly somewhere you would want to book! I think Mambocino could well be on to a winner. My source informs me that the reason the whole development has taken such a long time is that new power cabling and a full kitchen ventilation system are having to be installed in both the prospective Mambocino corner unit and the smaller unit which will house the Subway franchise. Things are looking up when it comes to eating choice in the town.

Although, as many readers know, I personally detest mobile phones, I am acutely aware that many people run their lives around such devices. Tus I do keep an eye on developments in mobile phone technology. Windows Phone started off life as a promising alternative to Android and iOS five years ago. Microsoft positioned its range of Windows Phone 7 handsets as the true third mobile ecosystem, but it is time to admit it has failed. If a lack of devices from phone makers and even Microsoft itself wasn't enough evidence, the final nail in the coffin hit today. Microsoft only sold 4.5 million Lumia devices in the recent quarter, compared to ten point five million at the same time last year. That's a massive fifty seven percent drop. Even a fifty seven percent increase wouldn't be enough to save Windows Phone right now. Microsoft and Nokia have sold a total of 110 million Windows Phones compared to four point five billion iOS and Android phones in the same period. With Lumia sales on the decline and Microsoft's plan to not produce a large amount of handsets, it's clear we're witnessing the end of Windows Phone. Rumours suggest Microsoft is developing a Surface Phone, but it has to make it to the market first. Windows Phone has long been in decline and its app situation is only getting worse. With a lack of hardware, lack of sales, and less than two percent market share, it is time to call it: Windows Phone is dead. Real Windows on phones might become a thing with Continuum eventually, but Windows Phone as we know it is done. It won't stop Microsoft producing a few handsets every year as a vanity project, but for everyone else it is most certainly the end of the line. I doubt that many people will even notice, to be honest. 

I reported some time ago about the plans that Aldi had to challenge the domination of Sainsbury's in Crayford; news has now been released that the construction of the new Aldi store is now beginning. The new 18,200 sqft supermarket will be the prime focus of the development in Roman Way - which will sit adjacent to the Tower Retail Park, and just over the road from Sainsbury's. You can explore the area in the embedded Google Street View above. There will be 157 parking spaces on the site, and other smaller retail buildings. Planning permission for the store was passed last year, and Aldi hope to open in November. The new store is going to be located on the quaintly named Crayford Island, almost directly opposite the huge Sainsbury's, which I understand was the largest one in the country when it opened; I am unsure if it still holds that title nowadays though. 

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago I featured a story about a campaign to raise a petition to the government to remove the rail franchise from Southeastern. It all went quiet for a while, but finally a government response to the petition has now been published.  “The industry is working hard to improve services and we are reforming passenger compensation. We are determined to provide the service passengers expect across the country. We know that some passengers are very frustrated about the performance and the service they receive. We expect Southeastern to continue to work with Network Rail in order to minimise disruption and ensure services improve in 2016. The Department for Transport is closely monitoring the performance of the rail network across London and the South East and operators must inform customers properly when things go wrong. As the Chancellor stated in his Autumn Statement, we are committed to reducing the time threshold for which passengers can claim from 30 minutes to 15 minutes, and the Department is gearing up to reform the compensation arrangements as set out in that commitment.

As part of our robust franchising programme, the current operator of Southeastern is delivering millions of pounds of investment to improve journeys, which includes:

•       New high speed and classic services delivering more than 95,000 extra seats, including 1,000 extra seats on Southeastern’s High Speed services every day

•       Refreshing 112 trains and updating toilets on a further 190 trains as well as improving accessibility by investing over £10 million in the train fleet over the franchise

•       An obligation to improve stations by investing £4.8 million by 31 October 2016 and from January 2015 opening Cannon Street 21 hours a day with additional staff to assist passengers

•       Extra staff will be available at stations as Southeastern have committed to ensuring that its gatelines are staffed for 90% in London and 70% of opening hours.

•       The new £26m Rochester Station completion was opened on 13 December 2015 and forms part of the East Kent Re-signalling programme, an investment of £145m.

•       Strood Station - a £2.6 million project to demolish the current 1960’s style station and replace it with a modern building – Work is due to start in Spring 2016 and to be completed by 2017.

•       A programme to deep clean all Southeastern stations and a programme of station improvement works across the franchise.

Alongside this, our record investment in the railways, and the transformative work which the industry is doing on this part of the network, is essential in building a world-class railway, providing more services and better journeys. We understand that passengers are concerned about performance and the service they receive, however we know that Southeastern are working together with Network Rail in order to minimise disruption and to recover services faster where infrastructure failures occur. We would like this work to continue in order that service improvements continue. Southeastern have been working on their fleet of trains to improve capacity in the Metro area, and the Department for Transport is working with Southeastern to look at whether additional capacity can be introduced in the near term and improve the service for passengers. This Government has long recognised the importance of improving the performance of train operators, and through Network Rail we committed to seeing £38 billion invested in the rail network, and the hugely ambitious infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and HS2, as well the transformation of London Bridge. We closely monitor the performance of both the operators and Network Rail, and incentivise their performance through the Franchise Agreements and Track Access Agreements. Whilst we understand the frustration felt by all constituents affected by any delay, we would like to assure you that the Department for Transport is determined to see further improvements and provide the service that passengers expect". In a very long – winded and bureaucratic way the Department of Transport are in essence telling commuters to get stuffed. This is precisely what I was expecting; the only real light at the end of the tunnel is the news that there is a strong likelihood that the whole Southeastern franchise may be taken over by Transport for London, who have a pretty good track record of turning around failing rail businesses. Time will tell.

In the past there have been rumours (which I have reported) about the forthcoming Crossrail project being extended past its currently planned terminus at Abbey Wood, and extended down to the proposed Paramount London Theme Park. Until now there has been little concrete evidence that anything other than a bit of talk had been going on. This has now changed. The News Shopper have reported that MP for Bexleyheath and Crayford, David Evennett attended a meeting with other local MP’s at number eleven Downing Street last week. The event was to lobby the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne to agree to extend Crossrail down to Ebbsfleet. Evennett said “We have so much potential along the riverside but transport services must be improved and extended. Local rail services are poor and Southeastern has failed to cope with the growth in passenger numbers. The extension of Crossrail could give a huge boost to economic development in our area, together with new housing and business opportunities”. The group were lobbying for extra regeneration in the east of London and along the River Thames with constituencies in south east London, Kent and Essex represented at the meeting. Thus far, no decision has yet been made as to whether an extension will be allowed. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Maggot Sandwich has a guest contributor this week; Gary Drew is a well - known radio presenter who broadcasts a weekly show on Laser Hot Hits. Gary is a renowned authority on 1980 's Jazz Funk and Soul music, and he has a very wide background in radio broadcasting. He writes a piece on his take on DAB Radio, following the article recently submitted by Peter Moore, station manager of Radio Caroline. Gary writes:- "It is well known in free radio circles that I am a supporter of DAB and I have been on board with this method of broadcasting since 2005. However despite much banter and teasing from fellow free radio colleagues on laser and friends having a polite dig at me for this I began to take DAB seriously around late 2012. I am aware that early DAB began in the mid 90's with stations being duplicated on DAB in parallel with the analogue versions. In those early days it is true that if you was able to get a good signal (mostly from the national BBC stations) you were able to get decent quality 198 kbps or 256 kbps and mostly stereo or something called joint stereo. I didn't bother purchasing my 1st DAB set until 2003 but I sent it back within just 3 weeks out of disappointment as the signals were weak on my local services and there was lots of burbling and cut outs most of the time. By 2005 the network had improved but a consequence of this was dropping bit rates of many stations and switching to mono in some cases not just to fit more stations onto the multiplexes but also to improve signal quality for those who had purchased earlier radio sets. Back then DAB radios were expensive and I think I paid over £150 in 2005 for my trusty Sony midi system with built in DAB which still works very well to this day. As I knew the framework for DAB was being upgraded albeit slowly, I decided to stick with it and I wasn't bothered about mono or low bit rates as long as I could hear the station I wanted to listen to. The same applies today with me in that the bit rate and mono signals of some stations doesn't really concern me as long as it's out there and I can get it. Your average Joe public would think in much the same way even now.  A serious issue would be if the stations could not be heard or cut out much more often like the old world space radio service which I believe suffered that fate even though it relied on satellites to get a signal. However to be fair, although I never had world space radio myself I did hear reports that when it did work it was okay. I think it was a victim of early technology launching to the masses too early without being developed enough. A proven record of a success story in satellite radio would be Sirius XM in the USA. Anyway back to DAB and over the years many stations that were DAB only (the selling point) with no analogue alternative changed ownership or closed down or were taken over thus not lasting very long. Some of this was to do with investment and running costs or restricted listenership as DAB was still in its infancy in my opinion until at least 2010. By then it seemed that more stations were coming on board and lasting longer, reception was improving and stations became settled in that they would not be moved around on the multiplex as much forcing a retune. However that said I have had to perform 3 re-tunes since October 2015 as the operators of DAB can be a bit ruthless at times by moving a station to a different multiplex sometimes without warning meaning that the station is still on the air but your radio won't find it unless you do a rescan where it has moved frequency within the DAB bandwidth.  In 2009 I bought a Pure Evoke flow wi-fi radio for the internet mainly but also for DAB. This newer radio worked better than the Sony on DAB as the firmware had improved and it is upgradable over the airwaves. I wanted to get all the London stations I could get on FM many years ago but I am out of range where I am so DAB was the answer and having more than one DAB radio was better so in 2011 I bought a Pure One Mi for the kitchen. Now DAB was taking off with more stations being added every few months but it wasn't until around 2012 when I bought a Pure One Classic when the real fun began. It was now possible to record, pause and rewind live radio. The ultimate selling point for DAB was here and I have had many years of success with this radio by setting the timer when I'm away and being able to playback and listen again to my favourite shows. In December last year just a few months ago I learned that DAB+ upgrades were now available for some Pure radios and DAB+ sets were now on sale and affordable in the UK. DAB+ a better version of DAB had already been adopted in most of Europe and stations were (and are) still closing there to go onto the DAB+ platform. Many Medium Wave stations closed on New Years Eve in France and Germany and other countries are following soon. In the UK we are already starting to see medium wave closures  with BBC Radio Bristol due to close on February 18th. There are unconfirmed reports that BBC Radio 5 Live is to go digital only soon as well. I was lucky and managed to get a free upgrade sent to me from Pure for my Pure One Classic mark 2 and Pure Evoke Flow mark 1 but now some people are paying £10 for DAB+ upgrades and these can now be done over the air rather than by plugging the radio into a laptop with a USB cable like I had to do. There is an upgrade for the Pure One Mi but you have to pay and not all radio's will be able to update. Why pay £10 to upgrade? A very good reason is that the new national multiplex is already testing on 11A and some of the stations will be broadcasting in DAB+. A DAB+ test is already going out for engineers and this is moving forward at a pace. I am still a big fan of analogue radio and as a free radio broadcaster and DX'er myself - I get a lot of joy from listening to pirate, clandestine and free radio but in recent years I have found myself not wanting to put up with poor signals on shortwave so I use the Twente SDR in the Netherlands and likewise the noise floor on medium wave is intolerable at times so I would rather find the DAB or online equivalent of a station. FM is okay but limited by local range and national stations require retuning. In most cases RDS or EON on analogue FM will take care of the retuning process especially while driving. Internet and wi fi radio and phone apps are very good but there is some waiting to connect or sometimes there is buffering so DAB is better for me as it's almost as instant as analogue radio, you can get almost everything you get on analogue, you can pause, record and rewind, you can listen to stations out of area in the crystal clear like clear DX and DAB+ is already here and improving and it will not be going away. Small scale DAB multiplexes have started and these are for stations who cannot afford to go onto the DAB platform on their own so they can be privately funded or run as a group of stations. There are 10 near me on one SS multiplex and stations like Radio Caroline and Solar Radio are already on some of the small scale multiplexes but not in all parts of the UK (yet). I am also lucky in that I can get 6 local multiplexes with my nearest 13 miles away and my furthest 50 miles away which only comes in on good days. Sometimes the station ident comes up but with no audio. I would like to thank Hugh for the web space and close by saying - love it or hate it DAB is here to stay. The analogue noise floor will get louder as more people buy electronics and medium wave frequencies will be sold off. Bye for now". Thanks to Gary for that very informative piece; if you have a view on what he says, please leave a comment below, or Email me directly to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Last weekend Erith Model Railway Society held their annual exhibition. One of south east England’s largest shows, it moved to a bigger venue this year at the Longfield Academy, having outgrown previous venues. Over two thousand visitors turned up to look at the model railway layouts. The exhibition encompassed over thirty quality layouts and sale of a range of products including transport books, DVD's and model building kits. You can visit the Erith Model Railway Society website here. The video below shows several layouts taken at last year's exhibition - do give it a watch.

Mother's Pride.

The photo above was taken by one of my confidential sources earlier this week. It shows the platforms and footbridge at Bexleyheath station. The reason that my informant took the photograph was that there is  construction work under way directly adjacent to the footbridge over the rails. From what can be seen, it is to install a passenger lift. This is excellent news for commuters from Bexleyheath, but it does beg the question, why is Bexleyheath getting a lift, when South Eastern have repeatedly refused requests to install a lift at Erith station, despite such a refusal being a contravention of the Equality Act 2010? I have contacted someone in a position to know about such matters, and I have been told that South Eastern and Network Rail are carrying out the lift construction as part of planned maintenance to the footbridge, as it is much cheaper to carry out such modifications whilst the bridge is being worked on anyway. A stand alone project would have been more expensive. It turns out that even Bexleyheath MP David Evennett was shocked that Bexleyheath was chosen over Erith, as Erith has a far worse accessibility problem. At Bexleyheath, there is a nearby bridge over the railway which can be easily used by those using wheelchairs or baby buggies – Erith has no such option. If you want to go to London, and cannot climb the footbridge steps, you have no option but to go to Dartford, two stops in the wrong direction, in order to use the lift there to change platforms to come back the other way. The reasons cited for choosing Bexleyheath over Erith also include a claim that the footfall at Erith is too low to justify a lift at this point. To my mind this is blatantly untrue. If you stand on the London bound platform (providing you can get to it) from around 6.30 on a weekday morning, you will see just how many people use the station. South Eastern’s usage figures are almost certainly distorted to read on the low side, as the only passenger data they will get on a daily basis will come from the Oyster card readers; many passengers, myself included, use paper tickets, and since there are no ticket barriers at Erith, there is no way to record the footfall accurately. The fact that Erith station has a car park that passengers are forbidden from using, and if you travel by car to the station, you end up being forced to park in nearby residential roads, though this is being stopped; there are already parking restrictions in Christ Church Avenue and Victoria Road. I am told that these restrictions are going to be widened to cover other roads around the station before the new Bexley College campus opens in September. Whatever the footfall for Erith station is now, it is inevitably going to increase. Not only will the new college attract passengers, but the massive increase in residential construction in the area will have an effect on commuting. Not only is Erith Park – currently the largest residential housing project in Europe – shortly coming to fruition, but, as mentioned last week, a further thousand houses and apartments may soon be built on the waste land, and former quarry located between Fraser and Bexley Roads. The residents are going to have jobs, and my guess is that many will need to travel to and from London. When these two large housing estates are factored in with all of the other smaller construction projects in the local area, it stands to reason that the demand for public transportation is going to explode. One does also wonder if the priority is being given to Bexleyheath station due to the demographic makeup of the passengers. Bexleyheath is generally regarded as being somewhat middle class, whilst Erith is regarded as working class. The North of the London Borough of Bexley is generally less favoured than the centre and South for this reason.

Some time ago I wrote describing how Tesco are shortly going to install display screens using facial recognition technology in their petrol station shops – the idea being that the screen will scan the shopper as they queue to pay for their fuel, and depending on the age and gender of the person, targeted adverts are played at the person. If this does not sound worrying enough, as the software improves and becomes more sophisticated,  it will be able to scan a database of previous customers to see if the shopper has used the outlet before. It can then check to see what the shopper previously bought and target adverts accordingly. There is a huge issue of invasion of privacy and lack of consent. If not only private companies, but government bodies employ facial recognition technology as a means of determining identity (which is already happening in the USA and China, for example), there are immediately problems when the system gets it wrong. At present, in ideal circumstances (good, even lighting, no rain or mist) the best facial recognition systems will be accurate about 97% of the time. That is a whole three per cent error rate. Unlike a PIN number or password, your face is not something you can change without resorting to surgery.  There have already been cases in the USA where mis – identification has had serious repercussions. In 2011 a blame free and conscientious driver called John Gass received a letter from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles informing him that he was ordered to stop driving immediately. After Gass made a series of concerned phone calls to the Registry, he eventually was able to determine that he had been incorrectly identified by a facial recognition system as a serial motoring offender, when in fact he had never had a driving ticket in his life. When he queried this, the Registry of Motor Vehicles official said that it was John Gass’s “burden” to prove his innocence, as the pros of protecting the public outweighed the inconvenience of the wrongly targeted few. I must admit that this made my eyebrows rise. The USA is often touted as a shining example of a country that espouses personal liberty; this example would seem to contradict that view. This kind of situation is going to become increasingly common; some bars and nightclubs are looking at introducing a facial recognition system called Scene Tap. This analyses high definition CCTV camera footage from within each establishment and can establish the gender ratios in the bar, it can also determine the age of patrons, and link their facial image with online social networking sites (in their words) to “determine the relationship status, intelligence, education and income.” Scary stuff. All this is done without the permission – or even knowledge of the patrons. You may think this is all rather “Minority Report”, but Scene Tap is already deployed and in operation in over four hundred bars and night clubs around the USA, and it is inevitable that it will be in the UK very soon, if it is not already here on the quiet. Even if you as an individual have no problems with facial recognition, it does raise the issue of identity. Once the technology becomes ubiquitous, cheap and interconnected, it will only take one system to mis – identify you for your entire online identity to become suspect; you may not even realise it for some time, and may have no way of even knowing why you suddenly get turned down for a loan, or barred from a nightclub where you have formerly been a regular visitor. At least where governments are involved with things like this, there are usually established processes to identify and rectify mistakes. When it comes to private businesses there are no such constraints.

Last week I posted an image of an advert from Groom’s bakery from back in 1903. Subsequently I have been in contact with local historian Ken Chamberlain, who sent me the photo above (click on it for a larger view) and gave me some valuable background information. I must admit that until Ken contacted me,  I had no idea how Grooms “the hygienic bakery” became so successful and known all around the country.  After starting off with the West Street bakery, the business rapidly expanded; eventually they ended up building the large bakery in Belmont Road, Northumberland Heath. The site had a stables for the horses that pulled their vans, plus workshops for the company mechanics, farriers and coach builders. The most famous product created by Grooms was “Mother’s Pride” – bread that ended up being sold all over the country, and is still a favourite today. The horse drawn vans were still in use until the late 1950’s – more I think as an advertising and publicity tool, than as a practical means of delivery. My late Dad would often hitch a lift with a van when he was a boy – he knew several of the drivers; if the were not following a route he wanted to go on, he would then roller skate the rest of the way. By 1957 this was to change though. Grooms merged with the Rank, Hovis McDougall Group, although the family continued to run the Northumberland Heath bakery until 1959. The bakery is still on the same site today, and is now owned by British Bakeries; it produces a substantial amount of the bread eaten by Londoners and those further afield.

On Friday night I went out for a curry with an old friend. Nothing unusual there then. It did get me thinking; whilst the contents of the menu in most high street Indian restaurants are usually fairly similar, depending on the chef and the target market, the same is almost always not true of the drink available. It is almost without exception going to include three or four varieties of lager.  Apart from my personal preferences not including lager (too cold, too gassy, too tasteless) it strikes me as an opportunity for a curry house owner to do something to stand out from the crowd. Personally I think that real ale is a far better accompaniment to curry than lager is ; real ale does not fill you up with gas, for one thing. It tends to have a more robust, malty and hoppy flavour which works well with the strong flavours Indian spices create. I think the only down side with serving real ale in a curry house is one of shelf life. Once a cask has been opened, it needs to be used within three or four days before it goes off; I doubt that many curry houses would serve enough to justify it. I would like to hear your views on the subject – either leave a comment below, or Email me hugh.neal@gmail.com. More on ale later.

It would appear from what I can gather that Bexley Council have effectively pulled the plug on the Danson Festival permanently. It has been known for some time that the festival was being called off this year, due, so the council said to drainage problems made worse by the terribly wet conditions last Autumn and Winter. It was originally intimated that the festival would be back as normal next year. Now Councillor Don Massey has announced that substantial engineering work is required to fix the problems, and that the council currently does not have the money to carry out the work. Bearing in mind over 60,000 people visited the festival last year, to drop it completely is quite a brave move, especially in the light of the forthcoming council elections. My understanding was that the festival was pretty much self funding, and usually turned a modest profit. It showcased local clubs and not for profit groups, and gave a lot of good causes the opportunity to both raise awareness and also fund raise. Several readers have left comments on the News Shopper website stating that the real reason for the cancellation of the Danson Festival is that the wealthy people who live in the big houses around Danson Park do not want the noise and disruption that the festival brings. Compared with other boroughs in the area, Bexley does very little if anything in terms of public festivities or events; it seems to be very keen to be able to continue to boast that they have kept council tax rates the same as last year, which seems to involve making more cuts upon cuts. The same cannot be said of the wage bill of the council leaders, which, as Malcolm Knight of “Bexley is Bonkers” has repeatedly pointed out, are amongst the highest in Greater London.

I find that whenever I check the BBC News website for the weather, it is wrong. It might not be out by that much, but at around this time of year when the air temperature can vary quite widely, the difference of a couple of degrees can strongly influence your choice of clothing. Quite some time ago I found the answer to this quandary. Local resident Bob Hewitt has an amazing automated, digital weather station, which is internet enabled. The station has a website that can be accessed by anyone wanting to know what the weather is like in the Erith and Northumberland Heath area. I consult the site several times per day – the information available is very detailed – not only temperature, but wind strength and direction, rain level, humidity, barometric pressure and so on. Weather Display Live is an excellent web resource that I visit every day, and would highly recommend to you.  

The list of beers for next weeks' 9th Bexley Beer Festival has now been published - see the image above, and click on it for a larger view. The festival will run from the evening of Thursday 15th May at 5pm until Saturday the 17th May. You can see more details by clicking here. I plan on attending on Friday evening - usually the most popular day of the event. A full report will be published next week.

I have been passed some documentation regarding Bexley Council and the refurbishment work that they propose to undertake in Northumberland Heath. It is only right and fair that the area gets some money and attention, as both Erith and Bexleyheath, which border the town have both had considerable regeneration efforts in the last couple of years, but Northumberland Heath has until now been missed out. The council propose some fairly dramatic changes, quite a few of which may not actually be necessary or indeed desirable. The Northumberland Heath Community Forum have analysed the council proposals and countered with their own proposal document, which actually would involve significantly less council expenditure. Most of the proposed works will centre around Bexley Road, and the main shopping area. The council propose replacing the existing powder coated steel park benches with stone ones. There are concerns that this is not necessary; the existing benches are in pretty good condition, and only require a coat of enamel paint every couple of years. They also have the advantage of having a back, allowing people to lounge, whereas the proposed stone benches will not. Much of the weekday population of Northumberland Heath is elderly, and are those most likely to use the benches, and back support is a definite requirement, and the feedback from the forum is that a lick of paint on the current benches is all that is really required. Similarly, the council propose replacing much of the existing block paving and granite kerbs, when the existing paving is not in bad order at all. It would seem that a decent regime of weeding and some re-pointing would be sufficient – and would also save a wad of council (our) cash. The money saved by abandoning these works could be better spent on resurfacing the Mill Road car park, which currently is so cratered that it resembles the surface of the moon. The council also propose replacing many of the dented metal roadside barriers with new ones. This is laudable, but the feedback from the forum members is that this would only be practical if bollards were used to protect the barriers; otherwise passing lorries tend to clip and bend them within months of them being replaced. All in all, the works required to enhance Northumberland Heath shopping area are not that extensive, and a proportion of the money the council propose to spend could better employed, say in refurbishing the library, which is looking quite tatty at present. The counter proposal document from the Northumberland Heath Community Forum is well argued and presents what I consider to be a strong case. Whether the council choose to abide by their findings is something we will have to wait and see. More on this when new information becomes available.

Are you a FaceBook user? Chances are that most Maggot Sandwich readers will be, as it would seem to be the most pervasive social network round. If so, have you ever wondered just how much your personal data is worth to FaceBook? If you are interested in what can be done with your information, and who would want to buy access to it, there is a new web service called Digital Shadow. The website scrapes your FaceBook profile (after you grant access), creating its own profile of you that focuses on vulnerabilities. The access granted is similar to the access offered to cameras, location services, apps and other websites that users commonly associate with FaceBook. Digital Shadow spells out exactly what they have access to: "Watch Dogs Digital Shadow will receive the following info: your public profile, friend list, News Feed, relationships, birthday, work history, status updates, education history, groups, hometown, interests, current city, photos, religious and political views, follows and followers, personal description and likes and your friends' status updates and photos." So, pretty much anything and everything you've ever put on the Internet. The website also predicts your location if you have geotagging or location services turned on. It also estimates your salary and produces a very well educated guess of your passwords. The password generator pulls from your friends, pet names, interests, frequently used words, and more to auto formulate potential passwords. It then estimates the time it would take for the passwords to be tested against FaceBook's log in by a hacking program: over a million can be tested in about two minutes. After you have finished being scanned by Digital Shadow, you can easily remove the app from your FaceBook settings by logging into your account, selecting Settings, then Apps, and pressing the X next to Digital Shadow. While you're there, you should check out what other apps have permissions to use your data, because they're likely to be turning a profit on your digital presence. Unless you stop using social media completely, and delete — not just deactivate — your profiles, your data can always be mined. While Digital Shadow won't make that disappear, it will bring attention to the pieces of your personal life that are most useful as data points, offering you a chance to adjust privacy settings. I have had several people querying why I am not on FaceBook, or indeed any similar website. Now perhaps you can better understand why.

The World Wide Web is 25 years old this week. Many people think the World Wide Web and the Internet are one and the same, but they are not. The video below gives a little background explanation and history - watch and enjoy.