Fit4Less.

The top photo was taken recently by me in Manor Road Erith; the lower one a while back in Erith High Street. The upper photo shows one of the large advertising hoardings that are erected on the Eastern end of the extremely long road.  Fit4Less are a no - frills gymnasium franchising company, which is part of the énergie Group, has approaching 100 clubs and more than 110,000 members across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe are shortly to set up a gym in the units adjacent to Erith Library in the High Street, in a trio of units that have lain unused since they were built around nine years ago, as shown in the lower photo - click on either for a larger version. Fit4Less describe themselves thus:- "Fit4less is a fast-growing budget gym within the fitness and wellness sector. British Franchise Association. With in-depth training and on-going support from the énergie group, who are leaders in the UK fitness sector, franchisees are given the tools to launch and manage their own ‘no frills’ budget gym business. With our tried and tested system and a steady market, franchise owners are equipped in all areas so as to provide customers with a quality Fit4less experience. Franchisees secure their future, ensuring they create the life/work balance that suits them. Fit4less is an Associate member of the British Franchise Association. How much does a Fit4less franchise cost? The initial franchise fee is £19,999 outside London or £24,999 within London and the minimum total investment is £95,000. We have a strong relationship with all major banks. Fit4less is an innovative low-cost franchise business which is part of the énergie group, an undisputed market leader in the fitness and wellness sector. Fit4less franchise business opportunity energie group sport gym budget management lucrative job career. Offering a ‘no frills’ service to customers, Fit4less’ budget gyms are one of the fastest growing fitness and wellness franchise businesses in the UK. With over 100,000 active members across their network in the UK and Europe, our franchisees are part of a rapidly expanding and highly profitable tried-and-tested system. Fit4less is expanding further and are searching for individuals with a ‘can-do’ attitude and a thirst for success! Does this sound like you? Fit4less works on the premise that we offer customers a valuable service at a fantastic price! In offering a low cost price, the Fit4less gym is a highly attractive and appealing option; this, in turn, pushes profitability. With this in mind, it is no surprise that budget gyms constitute the biggest growth in the health and fitness sector. Recent examples of success include the Fit4less gyms in Scunthorpe, Loughborough, Glasgow, Hoddesdon (Hertfordshire) and Brentford which all had more than 1,000 members within a week of opening. There are many others, like Kilburn (North London) which has surpassed its 3 year target of 2000 members within 4 months! Fit4less Highbury sold over half their 3 year target of memberships in just 3 months. These gyms are not exceptions and you too could be enjoying the same success." Quite. The people who have taken the Fit4Less franchise in Erith (which is due to open on the 27th October - though I strongly doubt this opening date - the site is still an empty concrete shell, with no fitting out taking place at the time of writing) have already unwittingly landed themselves in hot water, through no fault of their own, I must emphasise. The parent company engaged in a UK wide advertising campaign back in the Spring of 2016; the bulk of the advertising was concentrated on the use of roadside hoardings like the one in the photo above. They used a couple of "humorous" adverts, which offended so many people that the story made the national papers and the BBC News website back in April.  The case was not referred to the Advertising Standards Authority, but the story made so many headlines critical of the style and tone of the adverts that many of them were voluntarily taken down. Not so the one for the forthcoming Erith franchise, which is still on display at the time of writing. I would have thought it critical to any marketing scheme for a new business to make absolutely sure that you engage your local customer base. It will be interesting to see how things work out for the Erith branch of Fit4Less, and what type of clientele they attract. I get the feeling that it could be rather successful. The other gym in the town - the Nemesis Muy Thai gym is a specialist kickboxing place, which is not very likely to appeal to the mainstream public in the same manner that a popular brand that has UK wide recognition will. I am fortunate that if I was athletically minded (not that I am) I could make use of the huge gym in my company's giant HQ office building in Canary Wharf, so you won't be seeing me in the new place in the High Street, but I suspect that many people will be. Since I wrote the piece above, I have met Josh Waters, the owner of the Erith branch of Fit4Less, and I ran the piece past him prior to publication. He provided some interesting and insightful feedback which you can read here:- "What seems to feature heavily is the advertising and in your opinion on our opening date. With the billboards we have 4 up and only 1 of this nature and I'm sure you would have noticed we had the one next to it as well, which is normal. We actually only paid for that specific billboard for 4 weeks and has run out already, I guess it hasn’t been replaced as no one else has bought the space since. We don’t mean to offend and haven’t received any negative feedback from anyone so far, but I feel this may change with the tone of your statements. Again this is fine but we are just trying to show that we don’t take ourselves particularly seriously and the gym will be a fun place to be and try to reflect that in our national marketing campaigns. In regards to this fit out – works have started and the screed floor went down over the last couple of weeks. That is setting as we speak and dry liners will be in starting next Tuesday to start putting up walls etc. Windows were on a lead time and couldn’t order them until the lease was completed so they are due in another 2 weeks at the most. In the next couple of weeks you will start to see a lot more progress but we are well on track to hit our opening date set by our contractors that have fit out many of the F4L London sites". Well that clears those concerns up then. I will be covering the fit - out and opening of the gym, and think that it will become an important addition to the town centre. It is good to see the long vacant units finally going into productive use after lying empty for so long. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Long-time Maggot sandwich readers may recall that some time ago I bemoaned the closure of my favourite restaurant –the cheap and cheerful Sweet and Spicy in Brick Lane, which closed due to a huge increase in the cost of their shop lease a couple of years back. As I mentioned at the time, the area around Spitalfields and Brick Lane is becoming increasingly gentrified; when I used to work in the area in the mid 1990’s it was still primarily involved in the clothing industry, with many small factories and warehouses in the locality. It was rather rough and ready to be honest, but in a way I am quite grateful that I was able to experience the end of the East End as it had existed for a good couple of hundred years. Sweet and Spicy was nothing like the other restaurants in Brick Lane, which even twenty years ago were pretty much tourist traps. Instead Sweet and Spicy catered for the local residents – the Pakistani and Bangladeshi factory workers, and the congregation of the nearby Brick Lane Mosque. It had lino on the floors, melamine wipe clean tables and counter service. The menu was short compared to a normal British Indian style high street restaurant, and the curries cooked long and slowly, with the meat mainly being served on the bone. Food portions were huge, extremely cheap and utterly delicious – it was home cooked, rather than restaurant style, and all of the better for it. The place had an amazing reputation, and was busy from 11am until they closed at 11pm. It was one of the only places where you could get a curry for breakfast in the whole of Greater London. You can read more about the legendary Sweet and Spicy here. When it closed down in 2013 I was upset – it was a rough diamond of a place; when I first went there I was usually the only white face in the place, but only a handful of years later the customer demographic was far more diverse. This diversity ironically may have been what eventually led to its demise. As wealthier people started using the area around Spitalfields and Brick Lane, the rents started going up and the traditional look and feel started to change. I never thought that I would find anywhere that had anything approaching the atmosphere and food that Sweet and Spicy had, but I am pleased to announce that I have found a restaurant that comes pretty close in many ways, and it is local! The Punjab Curry and Grill in 309 Broadway, Bexleyheath is the nearest place I have come to proper, home cooked food that is generous in portion and reasonably priced. I went there last Friday evening with two friends – including the one who recommended the place – and his family is originally from the Punjab. We had poppadoms and dips, starters and a main course each with rice and garlic naan breads. The food was excellently cooked, nicely presented and the final bill for the three of us came to £32.95. The Punjab Curry and Grill does not have a drinks licence, but a wide variety of non – alcoholic drinks are available, and visitors are able to bring their own with no corkage fee. There is a small independent (and rather quirky) off – licence a couple of minutes’ walk away in Lion Road if this takes your fancy. The Punjab Curry and Grill could be a bit of a culture shock to someone used to a bog standard high street curry house. It is more akin to a transport café with nice décor and waiter service. The food menu does have a few nods towards the high street favourites, but many of the dishes are most definitely not the usual kind of thing one would expect; for example, I had Punjabi Goat Curry, which came served as a plate of meaty ribs with a thick, rich and spicy curry gravy. Other curries include Rabbit, Turkey  and Bater (Quail).  I will be heading back to the place sooner rather than later – and it has the added bonus that it is also within easy walking distance to the superlative Robin Hood and Little John – my favourite pub of all.

The Erith Quarry housing development will be holding an open day on Saturday the 15th October between 10am and 4pm. You can find out more on their website here. I will be going along with my camera, so please feel free to come and say hello.

As I have written in the past, the "legitimate" UK gambling industry is now starting to be regarded in the same way that the tobacco industry became in the 1980's, when the long disputed health risks of smoking became apparent to those outside of the medical profession. Last Monday night, a Panorama special investigation into high street bookmakers and the proliferation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals was broadcast. The main reason that the large betting companies want to open more outlets is that the law limits the number of FOBT’s in any specific betting shop to four machines, but it says nothing about the number of betting shops in any location. To increase the number of very lucrative FOBT units in a town, the bookmakers just open additional shops. Many local councils have been reluctant to block this, due to the fact that during the recession, many shop units have stood empty, and the betting shops offer a steady council tax income, which the council otherwise would not get. A recent report makes for extremely troubling reading; it reveals that in the 55 most deprived boroughs in the UK – overwhelmingly located in Northern cities and urban Greater London have a  total of 2,691 bookmakers shops, in which £13 billion was gambled on FOBT machines, and £470 million lost by gamblers in the last year alone. In the same time period, there were 1,258 bookmakers shops in the 115 wealthiest areas, adjusted to cover the same volume of population, within which players gambled a total of £6.5 billion, losing £231 million. The figures are now a couple of years old, and may now be appreciably higher. The report was commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, and shows that the large betting companies have targeted the poorest areas that have the highest unemployment, lowest per capita income and higher crime rates. The last year has also seen a large increase in the number of high street betting shops, mainly due to the leap in the total number of FOBT machines, such as digital roulette in use. In December 2013 there was a total of 9,343 active betting shop licences in the entire United Kingdom, which was an increase of 280 since 2012. The most deprived town council in the UK was identified as being Liverpool. A total of £118 million was gambled in 570 machines, and £23 million was siphoned off by bookmakers in the process. In the same time scale, the place voted as the most desirable place to live in the UK – the Hart district of Hampshire there are just seven betting shops with a total of 24 Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. Liverpool council have understandably got very worried by the figures, and are now keen to place strong control measures on the betting shop operators. The problem with FOBT machines is that large amounts of money can be spent on the machines very quickly, and losses can mount up almost before the gambler realises. A hundred pounds can be lost in no more than thirty seconds. Nick Small, of Liverpool City Council said of the situation “millions of pounds that should be used for paying for food and rent was being sucked into the FOBT machines”, and that “Bookies are arriving all the time into prime retail locations. This is all driven for FOBTs. I have no doubt of it. We are seeing horrific reports of family breakdown caused by gambling debts, problems with loan sharks. We are pretty sure organised crime is using the machines to launder money. It's out of control in a city like ours, where there are a lot of poorer people”.  The same situation exists all around the UK, with poorer areas – just like Erith, being hit far harder than wealthier regions. Industry observers have commented that one way to reduce the problem specific to FOBT machines would be to limit the maximum stake gambled to £2 – like ordinary one armed bandit machines, and to limit the maximum payout to £100. The gambling industry is not keen on this approach, for obvious reasons. To add to this, the Government are now showing an interest, as the subject is gaining column inches in the press now, and following the Panorama documentary last Monday evening. The government have taken a very weak stance, saying that they will wait for the findings of the (gambling industry sponsored) research before any decision will be taken; at the rate things are progressing, it will be the end of the year before any changes come into force, if at all. The problem is that the gambling industry is wealthy and powerful, and has a strong lobby in parliament – last year the five big gambling firms, which between them account for 92 percent of all bookmakers shops on the high street made an estimated total gross profit of £1.6 billion on FOBT machines alone – and this does not take into account the additional cash they generate through conventional stakes based gambling; still a very lucrative market, if now being overshadowed by the rise of the electronic gambling machine, and also it ignores the vast amounts of cash spent during online gambling – a somewhat shady and overlooked area of an industry that already has a somewhat tarnished image. Personally I feel that the UK gambling industry needs a massive shake up. It has been allowed far too free a rein for years, and has exploited the market to the point where it is more powerful than some banks. People rightly get annoyed by the activities of certain banks and bankers, whilst seemingly overlooking the scourge of the high street and nowadays also the web, the big five bookies. If all this was not bad enough, the web based casinos and poker sites that operate on the periphery of some country’s laws are proving increasingly aggressive in trying to separate people from their hard earned cash. I have noticed that sites such as 888 Casino and 888 Poker use software resistant pop – ups and pop unders, which are embedded into legitimate web sites, usually without the owner’s consent. The fact that a large organisation would willfully contravene the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to try and promote its dubious services to me says a lot about their intentions.

The photo above shows part of Erith High Street back in the summer of 1966, shortly before it was all demolished to make way for the hideous 1970's brutalist concrete shopping centre, which was universally hated by all. It took the extensive remodelling and re - engineering of the centre around ten years ago to turn it into the light and pleasant venue it is today.

As a lifetime non - smoker, the upsurge in the use of electronic cigarettes really means little to me personally, but I know many people feel that they are a way forward in their desire to give up smoking completely. I have written in the past that I would reserve my judgement on the use of them until better scientific evidence became available - well, it would appear that it has now done. More research into electronic cigarettes has reported positively on the devices, finding evidence of their use as smoking cessation aids and finding that they do not appear to cause any serious side-effects. An update to the Cochrane review on electronic cigarettes has restated the findings of the initial research, which was completed two years ago. It found that e-cigarettes are potentially a valuable smoking cessation aid, although there was not enough evidence to conclude that they helped people quit smoking confidently. The updated review now also includes observational data from an additional 11 studies which found no serious side-effects from using e-cigarettes for up to two years. Aside from throat and mouth irritation, which commonly dissipated over time, the review’s co-author, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, said “in the short to medium term, we didn’t find any evidence that they were associated with any serious side-effects.” Evidence from two trials found that e-cigarettes helped smokers to quit in the long term, but “the small number of trials, low event rates and wide confidence intervals around the estimates” meant that the researchers could not conclude with confidence that e-cigs helped smokers quit more than other cessation aids". Nevertheless, it would seem that they are a hell of a lot less harmful than traditional cigarettes - and I reckon it will not be long before the government begins to tax them like the real thing.

In a story first covered by Darryl of the excellent 853 Blog (so named because it covers Charlton, Lewisham and Woolwich – which at one time was covered by the old 853 telephone dialling code). As well as being a blogger, Darryl is a “proper” journalist with all of the skills that entails. He has uncovered a story around the venerable News Shopper – our once local, but now a regional paper. The paper had offices in Petts Wood, but these were closed down last year, with the remaining staff transferred to offices in Sutton, Surrey in order to share offices with its sister newspaper, the South London Guardian. Darryl writes:- “Last month, the Shopper’s Greenwich edition was merged with the neighbouring Lewisham paper. The Gravesend edition was also merged with its Dartford counterpart. Now all the Sutton-based staff – bar the web editor and managing editor – have been put on notice of redundancy. Four reporters, two content editors, three sub-editors, an editorial assistant and the deputy managing editor will lose their jobs by mid-October. This will leave just 12 reporters and four content editors to produce 11 South London Guardian papers, four News Shopper editions and their websites, the National Union of Journalists says, including news, sport and leisure coverage. The cuts come despite Newsquest making £70m profit last year. The News Shopper is one of its most successful titles on the web, although the strain of cuts is starting to show with simple mistakes showing in news stories and, more damagingly, in the printed papers. Staff are already being balloted for strike action over inadequate staffing, increased workloads and “reduced quality of newspapers”. Reporters walked out last year in protest at a previous round of cuts and the move to Sutton”. I knew about - and have written about the ill – advised move to Sutton, but until I read Darryl’s piece, I was not aware of the further round of redundancies. I have commented at length at the inaccuracies and obvious lack of knowledge that has crept into the News Shopper journalism over the last couple of years; on recurring error is the News Shopper repeatedly referring to Yarnton Way as being located in Erith, when it is actually on the Lower Belvedere / Abbey Wood border. I have written to the paper on more than one occasion to point this out, but with no effect.  Errors of this nature will only get worse. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or send me an Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week is some aerial footage taken over Danson Park. I know aerial drones are pretty commonplace these days - you can even buy quite decent ones in Maplin, but this footage is pretty awe inspiring. See what you think.

The "Wear it Pink" Campaign.

This weekend marks the first anniversary of the opening of Bexley Brewery, which is based in Unit 18 of the Manford Industrial Estate, at the Slade Green end of Manor Road, right at the foot of the Erith Wind Turbine. Brewers Cliff and Jane Murphy are helped by various friends and family, and in their first year of operation have already won multiple awards for their high quality real ales. They have also won the 2015 award for Best New Business from Bexley Council. The virtual birthday card shown above (click on it for a larger version) was created by local musician / artist and man about town The rEV. The Bexley Brewery is the first brewery to operate in the borough since Reffells Brewery ceased independent trading in July 1956, after being sold to what eventually became Courage. Bexley Brewery held an open day and tasting bar yesterday, to celebrate their official first birthday. Unfortunately I was unable to attend, as I had to go to work (I work in I.T and quite regularly have to work during evenings and weekends - system upgrades and maintenance cannot often be done during office hours). Below shows a wide angle photo of the birthday event; I just wish I could have been there to share the experience.

I have been writing about Erith and the surrounding areas for over nine years now. One former local resident who looms large in the public perception of the town is the late comedian Linda Smith. Smith was born in Erith  in 1958 and was educated at Erith College of Technology (now Bexley College) and at the University of Sheffield where she graduated in English and Drama. She joined a professional theatre company before turning to comedy. In 1987, she won the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year, then known as the New London Comic Award, and performed on the Edinburgh Fringe before breaking into radio comedy. Many of her early stand-up appearances were benefit concerts staged in solidarity with the British miners during the Miners' Strike in the 1980s. She was a lifelong socialist. Her first appearances on national radio were on Radio 5's The Treatment in 1997. She was subsequently a regular panellist on The News Quiz and Just a Minute and appeared frequently on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (from June 2001 onwards), Have I Got News for You, Mock the Week, Countdown and QI. She wrote and starred in her own Radio 4 sitcom, Linda Smith's A Brief History of Timewasting. After appearing on Radio 4's Devout Sceptics to discuss her beliefs she was asked by the British Humanist Association (BHA) to become president of the society – a role that she occupied with commitment from 2004 until her death. In 2002, she was voted 'Wittiest Living Person' by listeners to BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth. On 17 November 2003, Smith appeared on the BBC television show Room 101, where she successfully managed to put in "adults who read Harry Potter books", Tim Henman, "Back to School signs that appear in shops" and "posh people". However, she failed to put in Bow ties after host Paul Merton pointed out that Stan Laurel regularly wore a bow tie. On 27 February 2006, Smith died as a consequence of ovarian cancer at the age of 48. She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer three and a half years earlier but, not wanting to be thought of as a patient or a victim, she did not want people to know. Before she died she chose that her funeral be humanist, and her memorial at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, on 10 March, was dedicated to the BHA. Her life and work were honoured at the British Academy Television Awards in 2006. The first episode of Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy was dedicated to the memory of Linda Smith. Two tribute gigs were held in her memory. The first took place on 14 May 2006 at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, In Praise of an English Radical, the second on 4 June 2006 at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London entitled Tippy Top: An Evening of Linda Smith's Favourite Things. In August 2006, Andy Hamilton presented a BBC Radio 4 tribute entitled Linda Smith: A Modern Radio Star. An anthology on CD, entitled I Think the Nurses Are Stealing My Clothes: The Very Best of Linda Smith, was released in November 2006 as was a book with the same name. A tribute show of the same name was aired on BBC Radio 4 on 10 November 2006. Linda Smith was an amazing entertainer and observer of the human condition; unfortunately her most famous one - liner has come to haunt the local area, and to (in my mind, anyway) give an unfair impression. She said "Erith isn't twinned with anywhere, but it does have a mutual suicide pact with Dagenham". More on Linda Smith and her impact on the local area next week.

The aerial photo above was taken back in 1938; it shows what Erith looked like just prior to World War 2. The only readily recognisable building that is still in existence today is Erith Town Hall, in the bottom left of the photograph, which apart from having a third storey fitted to the building in the 1990's, looks remarkably unchanged. The building to the right of the Town Hall is the original Erith Fire Station, which was destroyed on the night of 21st/22nd January 1944. Local historian Ken Chamberlain wrote about it, saying: "the Bexley Road station suffered a direct hit by a delayed action bomb. Several years ago I spoke to a survivor of the incident he recounted how they were in the engine room when they heard a loud crash and debris started falling about them. They ran out to see where the bomb had fallen. This action undoubtedly saved their lives as at that moment the bomb exploded. He claimed not to have heard a bang, but was stone deaf for six weeks afterwards. He did however suffer injuries. He was taken to Erith Hospital, treated and was back on duty in two hours. There were no fatalities. The 1907 building was demolished and a temporary structure was put in its place. The wartime control room remains as does a part of the entrance doorway. The temporary station remained until 12th July 1961 when it was replaced by the station that is now located in Erith Road, Belvedere".

When I was at school my tastes in music were very rigidly defined; I liked certain bands and detested pretty much everything else. If it had been on “Top of the Pops” I would automatically detest it without consideration; I liked album rock from bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen and early Genesis and to hell with anything else. To be fair, when you were a kid in the 80’s, music was very compartmented and tribal – the heavy metal fans hated the new romantics, the indie fans hated pop fans, and everybody hated the Goths. Nowadays my musical tastes are far more diverse; I listen to pretty much every genre of music, with one notable exception. I, like many others, utterly detest Country and Western music. I find it maudlin, sentimental, clichéd and treacly. Its followers appear to consist mainly of the under educated and over fed. Anyway, I have found myself on the horns of a dilemma with the news that Erith based singer / songwriter Wayne Jacobs whose music has been played on BBC Radio Kent and Essex, was delighted to be awarded the ukcountryradio.com’s Listeners song Club award with his 9/11 tribute song, "May We Never Forget". This is now the fourth year in a row that Wayne Jacobs has won this award. I really don’t want to promote Country and Western music – on the grounds that if we ignore it for long enough, it might go away, but at the same time, with my personal libertarian philosophy of “if it works for you” I feel that I should offer Wayne my full support – after all, he’s out, making a new career in show business – and Erith’s only other showbiz personality of note was the late comedienne Linda Smith, as previously mentioned. Who says I don't plan these things?

The rules over smoking in public are just about to get a whole lot more complex. From October 1st, 2015, it will be illegal for retailers to sell e-cigarettes or e-liquids to someone under 18, for adults to buy (or attempt to buy) tobacco or e-cigarettes for someone under 18 and to smoke in a car or other vehicle when someone under the age of 18 is present. All private vehicles (including hire cars) must be smoke free if they are enclosed, there is more than one person present and one of them is under 18. It will be an offence for a person of any age to smoke in a car (or other private vehicle) with anyone under 18 present. And for a driver - including those aged 17 and people with a provisional licence -not to stop someone smoking in these circumstances.The fixed penalty notice fine for both offences is £50 and both the driver and the smoker could be fined, whatever their age. Somebody who commits both offences could get two fines. All this sounds fine and laudable, but if it is enforced in a similar way to the rules on the use of mobile phones when driving, it will be yet another toothless law.

Citizen Smith, the 1977 to 1980 sitcom starring Robert Lindsay, is the subject of revival rumours - several national newspapers have been printing stories that the programme is shortly to be remade with many members of the original cast. The classic BBC comedy followed the adventures of 'Wolfie' Smith, a young Marxist "urban guerrilla" living in Tooting, south London. With his slogan "Power to the People", Wolfie attempted to emulate his hero Che Guevara through his own Tooting Popular Front - with little success due to disorganisation, laziness, and general fecklessness. Citizen Smith was written by John Sullivan, the writer of Only Fools And Horses, who died in 2011.Jim Sullivan, one of John's sons who wrote for Only Fools And Horses sequel The Green Green Grass with his father, appears to have put an end to the proposals. Jim said: "The stories are news to us - and we own the rights to the series. It's not the first time that people have suggested bringing the series back but that is not something we would want to do. Every episode of Citizen Smith was written by Dad - all the lines, ideas and plots were his. As we have said about Only Fools And Horses, the show only ever had one writer and it is going to stay that way."

You may have heard a number of adverts on various commercial radio stations promoting digital radio over the last few weeks. The current version is read by TV presenter Suzie Perry.  The fact is that DAB digital radio - in the UK at least - has been a bit of a disaster. There are some great stations broadcasting on DAB (one of my personal favourites is the excellent Radio 4 Extra). There are some pretty horrible problems with the way that digital radio has been deployed in this country however; the real challenge isn't coverage, even if that does need improving. That is a well understood issue and the solution is obvious enough. The main problem is bandwidth. And it's an issue that came up once again today because Norway has recently announced plans to kill FM broadcasting and switch everything to digital by 2017. Did you know, for instance, that many DAB radio stations in the UK are broadcast at just 64 kbps mono using the venerable MP2 codec?  That really is mono not stereo. That really is MP2 and not MP3. To put that into context, MP2 is a less efficient codec than MP3, so that 64 kbps figure is more like equivalent to 48 kbps in MP3. Opinions vary on what makes for decent music quality in the MP3 codec. That's especially true if the context is in-car radio where background noise is prevalent. the tolerable minimum for most people who remotely care about sound quality tends to be in the 128 to 192 kbps range for the MP3 codec. In other words, far, far more than many current DAB stations. Actual bit rates will vary depending on where you are in the country. But stations that broadcast at 64kbps - at least from some transmitters - include Absolute Radio 80s, Amazing Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, Jazz FM, Rainbow Radio and many more. All the rest broadcast at 80 kbps to 128 kbps with a single, solitary exception, namely BBC Radio 3 which is 160 kbps to 190 kbps. Those are all MP2 bit rates. Even Radio 3 is scraping the barrel for tolerable sound quality. The problem is bandwidth. The best way to think about DAB is as a single data stream carrying all available stations. And the single data stream has a fixed data rate. For the sake of argument, imagine that data rate in 1Mbps. All your radio stations have to fit inside that 1Mbps budget. With, say, four stations, you have a healthy 256 kbps per channel. Every time you add a station, something somewhere has to give. Immediately, you realise DAB is fundamentally at conflict with itself. It is supposed to offer better quality and more stations, but the more it does the latter, the less it can deliver the former. There is limited bandwidth available - the more stations, the lower the audio quality becomes. Early DAB adopters may even remember how good the technology was at launch. Some stations were broadcast at 256 kbps back when it was essentially a test technology for the BBC. But as stations were added, bit rates fell off and quality worsened. Essentially the UK has paid the price in being one of the first countries in the world to roll out digital radio. The DAB technology is now very old and no longer up to the job - and it shows. As for what is to be done, part of the answer is simple. Switch the UK to the newer and far more bandwidth efficient DAB+. That is the follow up to DAB that supports the AAC codec which is more efficient even than MP3. Most recent DAB radios either already support DAB+ or can with a firmware upgrade. It will be somewhat painful for owners of older DAB radios that are not capable of receiving DAB+. The simple fact is the UK jumped too fast into DAB. The fundamental idea is sound, it is just that the current implementation is not now fit for purpose. Other broadcast technologies such as internet streaming via 3G or 4G do not have the country - wide coverage to rival DAB+ (yet), but it may well be that rolling out DAB+ may be too little, too late. What do you think? Drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com with your thoughts.

MP for Erith and Thamesmead Teresa Pearce has been promoting the charity Breast Cancer Now, and their "Wear it Pink" campaign which is asking people to wear something pink on Friday the 23rd of October. Teresa is encouraging people in the constituency to get involved and raise money for research into the disease. She said: “Breast cancer affects so many people’s lives. Sadly, nearly 12,000 women a year still lose their lives to the disease. Breast Cancer Now wants to ensure that no-one dies from the disease by 2050. We need to make sure that they receive the funding to carry out the cutting-edge research necessary to make this goal a reality.” This is excellent stuff; I think however that there is a wasted opportunity here. Men can and do get breast cancer too - though the numbers are far smaller than women, but it is actually a condition that can affect both sexes - and very few people appear to realise this.  In men, breast cancer is very rare. There are between 350 and 400 men diagnosed each year in the UK, compared with around 50,000 cases of breast cancer in women. Because so many cases of breast cancer occur in women and it is very rare in men, a lot of the information is directed specifically towards women, but much of the information that men with breast cancer need is the same.  The symptoms, diagnosis and treatment are all very similar to women with breast cancer. The risks and causes do vary slightly. There are some areas where men need different information to women, such as types of breast surgery. The most common symptom for men with breast cancer is a lump in the breast area. This is nearly always painless. Other symptoms can include:-

Oozing from the nipple (a discharge) that may be blood stained

Swelling of the breast

A sore (ulcer) in the skin of the breast

A nipple that is pulled into the breast (called nipple retraction)

Lumps under the arm

If you have any of these symptoms it is important to go to your GP straight away. Finding a cancer early gives the best chance of successful treatment. Because breast cancer is relatively rare in men, getting an accurate diagnosis as early as possible is imperative. The outlook for breast cancer is not as good in men as in women. This is because there is a reduced awareness of the condition and it may take longer to diagnose. The survival rates for breast cancer in men largely depend on how far the cancer has spread before it is diagnosed. Breast cancer diagnosed at an early stage can often be treated successfully, but effective treatment is more difficult if the cancer has spread beyond the breast tissue. Unfortunately, many cases are diagnosed after the cancer has already started to spread. It may be rare in men, but it can and does occur, and more men need to be aware of this.

A story that utterly astounded me has been reported on ITV News this week; Ebbsfleet Academy’s principal Alison Colwell. when interviewed for the news programme said that "mobile phones are the nightmare of our time and should be banned in classrooms". Mrs Colwell told ITV News the school’s ban, and the threat of confiscating a phone for a month or half a term, has been a successful deterrent and has stopped mobiles going off in class. The school is now a phone-free zone, with all mobiles switched off and in the bottom of pupils' bags – meaning teachers hardly ever have to make the dreaded confiscations. "The success of the ban is it’s a very rare occasion we have to confiscate a phone. It’s a very clear rule that we enforce. The students know that if their phone is seen, if their phone goes off, they will lose it. So they are cautious and they are wise. I can’t see the place for phones in the classroom - to me they are a distraction." Mrs Colwell said she is teaching the kids "not to be phone dependent, and to communicate better with their peers". What astonished me was that this story made both the national and local news. Surely all schools ban the use of mobile phones during teaching time? If so why not? Why have school pupils ever been allowed to use a mobile phone during school time?

Back in May I wrote about how Bexley Council were debating converting the former Homeleigh Care Home into temporary accommodation for homeless people. Bearing in mind that Avenue Road and the adjacent Park Crescent are the two roads in the town with the best addresses, I have already heard some concern from residents about the plan. Worries regarding possible criminal activity and drug taking / dealing have been the principal concerns. Bexley Council have now gone forward with the plans, and after refurbishment, the building will be able to provide accommodation for up to fifteen families and ten individuals. The council has stressed using Homeleigh for temporary housing is not a permanent use for the currently empty building, and the use will last a maximum of two years. My personal view is that nobody chooses to be homeless, and a vast majority of those likely to be housed in the former nursing home will be “nice” people who are down on their luck. Being homeless does not make you a criminal. The fact that Bexley Council are (uncharacteristically in my opinion) acting in a pragmatic and practical way to address the serious problem of a local lack of affordable housing by recycling a currently empty building seems eminently sensible and, dare I say it, a very good idea. As with anything of this nature, the devil is in the detail; if the Homeleigh centre was used as a halfway house for a large number of people with dependency problems, then I could see a good deal of reason for local concern. I can also appreciate worries about the effect such a centre could have on house prices (for non - local readers, Avenue Road and Park Crescent are the two “upmarket” roads in Erith, with some lovely 1930’s era detached and semi-detached houses in quiet, tree – lined surroundings, making a very desirable and quite expensive environment).

In March I wrote about the Apple iWatch, and why it was a really bad idea to buy one then. You may recall that I said that Apple would have a new, improved model out within a scant few months. In fact version two of the iWatch was due out this Wednesday, but it has been unexpectedly delayed due to a bug in the operating system. Apple has not let slip anything further about the nature of that bug or just when it will be able to deliver the update to Apple Watch owners. The watchOS 2 release has been touted by Apple as a major overhaul to its smartwatch firmware. The update will bring the first support for native watchOS applications, rather than those built through iOS. The addition of native applications promises to give developers greater access to the hardware components in the Apple Watch (such as the microphone and speaker) and can interact with Apple's HealthKit and HomeKit application programming interfaces. Apple has also added a number of its own new features, including a "Time Travel" option to view upcoming appointments and the addition of customization options to set the default screen to a watch face, photo, or one of several time-lapse photo collections. Personally I feel that smart watches of all types - the iWatch included - are a solution in need of a problem. What do you think? Drop me an Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The ending video this week is quite relaxing; it shows a bicycle journey from Dartford to Erith via Crayford Ness and the Slade Green Marshes, which are an ancient wetland and an area of outstanding natural beauty. It is very peaceful and relaxing to watch when the rider gets onto the marshes - somewhere that even many local people are completely unaware of.

The end of the year.

I took the photo above from the footpath along the Thames that runs behind Morrison's in Erith; many people in Bexley don't realise what a strong maritime connection that Erith has - the fact that it is the only town in the whole London Borough of Bexley that has direct access to the River Thames is unknown to many. Until relatively recently many locals were employed on or near the river. Nowadays it is pleasant to walk along the bank of the river and watch the passing shipping. More on river based activities later. 

2014 has been a mixed year for the local area; there have been many beneficial things, but these have to some extent been balanced by a number of negative outcomes – many of which can be laid at the feet of Bexley Council. More on them later. Back in March some concerted action by a group of residents, along with Erith Town Forum were able to stop the franchise holders of the KFC Drive Through in Manor Road Erith from opening 24/7. The fast food outlet is surrounded by residential properties on all four sides, one of which is a residential care home for the elderly. I think the council planning department, and KFC themselves were stunned by the massive and vociferous protests at the application; it was heartening to see the application get very swiftly withdrawn by the franchising company. There have been persistent rumours that the KFC is operating on a “hand to mouth” basis. Customers have repeatedly reported that they were unable to be served Pepsi, or that no napkins or ketchup were available. The drive through is usually busy from around 5 – 6.30pm on weekdays, and a little later at weekends, but during the daytime the restaurant is often close to empty. It will be instructive to see what happens over the next year, as I feel that the application to extend opening hours was an attempt to increase trade which the place so seems to lack at anything outside of dinner time. Whether it will be able to survive is something that only time will tell. On a more positive note, 2014 was most definitely the year of the Micro Pub. Welling’s Door Hinge won CAMRA Regional Pub of the Year, whilst the Penny Farthing opened to great acclaim on Crayford Riverside, and plans continue for the Broken Drum to open in Blackfen. The return of the “back to basics” style of micro pub – where no jukeboxes or televisions are permitted, and conversation is wholly encouraged. Real ale and cider is served, along with a couple of wines; generally spirits are not available. It would be great if some enterprising aspiring publican would open a Micro Pub in Erith or Northumberland Heath, as the area is sorely lacking in decent watering holes – Erith town centre now has only the Running Horses, which as I recently wrote is nowadays only a sad shadow of its’ former self. A Micro Pub would be a very welcome addition. Another great benefit to the town this year has been the opening of the Bexley Brewery in the Manford Industrial Estate. Only three months from opening the brewery is already nominated for two business awards, and is gaining new customers on an almost daily basis. The first hints that the first production brewery in the London Borough of Bexley since Reffells closed in 1956 came about in May; the 2014 Bexley CAMRA beer festival announced a new brew from a local producer was to be premiered. Bexley Brewery Red House Bitter was the first beer to run out at the festival, and it was voted third best beer of the eighty brews on tap – not bad for a very first attempt! Things then went quiet as far as the public were concerned – though head brewer Cliff, his wife Jane and a team of helpers were extremely busy getting the new brewery up and running in the dedicated premises located on the small, well-kept and very pleasant industrial estate next door to the Erith Yacht Club at the Eastern end of Manor Road. I was fortunate to visit the brewery on several occasions before it officially opened, though I was sworn to secrecy over the plans for the place. Since it opened in September, the Bexley Brewery has gone from strength to strength, and 2015 promises to be an excellent year for them. Less popular with the public have been the actions of certain members of Bexley Council who, in their usual manner do as much as possible to alienate and inconvenience residents who live in the North of the borough in order to keep services and resources available for their voters in the prosperous South of the Borough. Following the closure of the Belvedere Splash Park, amongst a huge and vociferous protest, Bexley council have now announced that they are about to relinquish control of a number of public libraries, so that if they are to remain open at all, they will have to be run by volunteers. The libraries affected are Blackfen, Bostall, Northumberland Heath and Upper Belvedere. This effectively means that Bexley Council are shutting these libraries by the back door; volunteer – run libraries rarely succeed, due to a lack of volunteers to run the operation to enable it to operate the opening hours that the users are used to – you may notice the same thing often happens with charity shops – one can often find a charity shop closed during the normal shopping day, merely as no volunteers were available to staff it at that particular time. The same thing is true of pretty much any organisation that relies on unpaid volunteers. This all seems to play into the hands of the Council – there are widespread rumours that Bexley Council want to sell off the parcel of land that contains Upper Belvedere Library, along with the recreation park next door; this could be undertaken by moving the swings and play area across Woolwich Road and onto what has been the Belvedere Splash Park site for the last nine years. A large parcel of prime development land would then be free for the Council to sell off to the highest bidder. No doubt a lot of tiny “shoe box” flats would end up on the site, generating a healthy income for the Council. Cynical? Maybe, but from previous experience this is just the kind of thing they get up to. For more on the misdemeanours and shady dealings that occur locally, I would refer you to Malcolm Knight’s excellent Bexley is Bonkers blog.

Two of my regular readers, and occasional contributors, Paul and Rosemary sent me the photos above - click on either for a closer view; here is a short description from them:- "Both my wife Rosemary, who took the attached photos, and I took a stroll along the river walk heading upstream towards London yesterday morning. The attached photos show where the silos are being installed. The site is just past the Fords factory on the opposite bank in Dagenham. Looking at the area it appears that Erith Pier is the safest point to moor the barge whilst the work is taking place". Excellent stuff, and very helpful as to what is actually going on. The mystery of the barge with the giant silos moored on Erith Pier has now been going on for nearly a month; the sooner they project is completed the better for all concerned.

German IT researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when mobile phone networks are using the most advanced encryption algorithms now available. The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest evidence of widespread insecurity on SS7, the global network that allows the world’s mobile phone carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other. Experts say it is increasingly clear that SS7 (sometimes also referred to as C7), first designed in the 1980s, is riddled with serious vulnerabilities that undermine the privacy of the world’s billions of mobile phone customers. The flaws discovered by the German researchers are actually functions built into SS7 for other purposes – such as keeping calls connected as users speed down highways, switching from cell tower to cell tower – that hackers can repurpose for surveillance because of the lax security on the network. The weakness of global mobile phone networks is that it is immaterial as to what security each network uses, as all networks in the world have to employ SS7 to communicate between networks – hackers don't need to crack the encryption, because weaknesses in SS7 means that they can get around the encryption without actually having to break it. These vulnerabilities continue to exist even as mobile phone carriers invest billions of dollars to upgrade to advanced 3G / 4G technology aimed, in part, at securing communications against unauthorised eavesdropping. But even as individual carriers harden their systems, they still must communicate with each other over SS7, leaving them open to any of thousands of companies worldwide with access to the network. That means that a single carrier in Congo or Kazakhstan, for example, could be used to hack into mobile phone networks in the United States, Europe or anywhere else. It is thought that security services such as the NSA and GCHQ have been exploiting these vulnerabilities for many years, but the information has only recently been available in the public domain. The German researchers found two distinct ways to eavesdrop on calls using SS7 technology. In the first, commands sent over SS7 could be used to hijack a cell phone’s “forwarding” function -- a service offered by many carriers. Hackers would redirect calls to themselves, for listening or recording, and then onward to the intended recipient of a call. Once that system was in place, the hackers could eavesdrop on all incoming and outgoing calls indefinitely, from anywhere in the world. The second technique requires physical proximity but could be deployed on a much wider scale. Hackers would use radio antennas to collect all the calls and texts passing through the airwaves in an area. For calls or texts transmitted using strong encryption, such as is commonly used for advanced 3G and 4G connections, hackers could request through SS7 that each caller’s carrier release a temporary encryption key to unlock the communication after it has been recorded. The German senator who cooperated in the security researchers demonstration of the technology, Thomas Jarzombek of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party, said that while many in that nation have been deeply angered by revelations about NSA spying, few are surprised that such intrusions are possible. “After all the NSA and Snowden things we've heard, I guess nobody believes it’s possible to have a truly private conversation on a mobile phone,” he said. “When I really need a confidential conversation, I use a fixed-line phone”. I think the senator has rather missed the point; fixed land line phone conversations are sent unencrypted, and are very easy to intercept. The only really secure method is by having a face to face conversation – something that Osama Bin Laden was acutely aware of, but in the end it still did him no good. To be honest, after the doom and gloom of the news about mobile telephony and privacy, I would like to point out that back in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s when the original analogue ETACS mobile phone technology was in use, voice calls made by the system were sent “in the clear” with no encryption whatsoever. Anyone with a radio scanner that was capable of receiving narrow band FM signals between 890 and 950 MHz could listen in to phone conversations, though it would be a one sided listen, unless the scanner had dual watch and could re – tune to the frequency the base station was using to transmit to the phone handset. I think some local residents would be extremely embarrassed if the contents of their mobile phone conversations had ever been made public back in the day - I have been informed by a reliable source that a a couple of analogue mobile phone owners in Erith used to hire "ladies of negotiable virtue" on a regular basis, unaware that their phone calls were being monitored. Nevertheless the ability to monitor confidential phone traffic was available to anyone able to purchase a scanner. At least nowadays the bad guys have to work a little bit harder when they wish to eavesdrop a phone conversation.

Last week I was heading home from work on the train when a chap sitting diagonally opposite me asked if I could help him; he was unfamiliar with the area, and needed to meet someone outside of Woolwich Arsenal railway station. His mobile phone battery had run out of power and he wanted me to look up the area around Woolwich Arsenal on my mobile phone. As many of you know, I don’t own or use a mobile phone – not only am I deeply concerned by the potential long – term health risks posed by low energy microwave radiation absorbed by the human body, but I also have issues with privacy and tracking which I won't bore you with here and now. The chap was gobsmacked when I told him I did not have a mobile phone – he genuinely could not understand how anyone could function without one. I told him that Woolwich Arsenal station was on the East side of General Gordon Square, and that anyone looking for him would have no difficulty in seeing him waiting there. The chap was unconvinced – it seemed that he trusted his mobile phone more than advice from someone familiar with the area. This is one of the most insidious and worrying aspects of the use of smart phones – the user becomes dependent on them, and does not know what to do when the device runs out of power, is lost or develops a fault. Common sense, ingenuity, and the ability to” think on one’s feet” seem to have been eroded in a substantial number of people in only a few short years of smartphone ownership. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Now for part two of the story of Chic Mackie, the Erith based piper, following on from the previous episode of his story last week. 

From Black Watch to Erith a long …..long….. march.

As much as I would love to continue writing about my Black Watch Service I am afraid this is my concluding story. Oh well …….12 years service with the Black Watch regiment learned me self discipline, social skills, respect for others and how to survive, believe you-me as I marched through my life I had to rely on the fore said! On leaving the Army I joined British Rail. The only question they asked me was I scared of heights? I wondered why they would ask such a question….it did not make sense after all my days of playing with helicopters and climbing mountains or indeed abseiling from any of the above were finished! Wrong!  My offer of employment from BR (prior to privatization) revealed that I was to be given the job of Lamp Boy eh? So before long I was climbing the old semaphore signals servicing the oil lamps. Wonderful job nobody bothered me as long as all the lamps were alight. I spent many hours wandering the track in all weathers just me and my little oil lamps. I did get promoted during my varied Railway career and ended up in a management position involved with Total Quality Management. However privatization ensured redundancy so to move on to pastures new. I moved to London to search for work. I decided to have a little leave and visit some of the landmarks of London. As such I found myself in Harrods (as one does you understand). Then out of the blue I was approached by two rather large Security Officers who invited me to follow them down to the Security Control Centre. Having done nothing I immediately refused! They then informed me that if I refuse I would be arrested! So I had a quick change of mind, they then escorted me through a maze of dark underground tunnels and took me to an interview room. On arrival I was asked to wait to be interviewed by the Security Manager. “Why” I asked they replied “that I had been spotted on the Security Cameras, and was of interest to them” As time passed ever so slowly I began to think, what had I done, this is surely a mistake, I know I paid for the coffee and cake I had the receipt somewhere. The door burst open, “Chic I am so sorry to keep you waiting, I shall come straight to the point would you like to play the Bagpipes for Mohamed Al Fayed and we need you to start on Monday!” “You were spotted in the control room on CCTV by one of your old Army colleagues Andy Coulter” (who was himself to follow the route of a professional piper with all success) “Yes please”, I was to stay with the Harrods Pipe Band for a number of years, had a great time….another chapter in itself!  Time marched on all too quickly. Next Her Majesty’s Tower Of London as a Senior Warden. Civilian Warden not Beefeater. Yes! locked in the Tower for 16 years working in The White Tower and HM Crown Jewels. Playing bagpipes on the more formal occasions. Oh dear that was hard work 7 days a week 16 hour shifts, great staff, some wonderful people at that time I loved it. However things change and as a supervisor and giving my all, I could not give anymore. More and more pressure from the company. God! do I need to move please. I even met my wife Pamela at the Tower and had our wonderful wedding reception there in the Tower Club. Got home one evening, the phone rings Chic how would you like to teach the Bagpipes in Qatar, excellent salary, your reputation goes before you and can you fly out in three weeks time? Pam and I had only been married a few months, however she knew that my days at the Tower were numbered (along with other long standing and dedicated staff) she gave me her instant full support, saying Chic you have got to do this! So a year out in Qatar. Wonderful culture, sunny every day, short working days and doing what I love playing the Bagpipes! Pam came out twice for holidays which was great. Learning Arabic and Arabic Pipe Tunes was a challenge in itself! I will not even mention playing bagpipes on a Camel. But that may be for another time! My year in Qatar soon came to an end, I have been invited back, however another year away from Pam, no thank you.  So here I am back in Erith pursuing my career as a Professional Bagpiper and still marching on! Fascinating stuff, and thanks very much to Chic for sharing it with us. You can see Chic's Facebook page here.

What happens socially in the USA usually ends up being replicated in the UK, so when  a report stating that American teenagers are staying away from cigarettes in greater numbers than they have in generations. That is amongst the good news in a new survey of more than 41,000 students published on Tuesday. But for the first time in a U.S national survey, teens reported puffing on electronic cigarettes more than smoking conventional tobacco. Cigarette smoking among American high school students has been declining since the late 1990s, and the drop got sharper in the last few years. Today just 6.7 percent of high school seniors light up daily, less than half as many as a decade ago. A similar pattern has been noted in Britain – with many school kids preferring to spend their money on credit for their “pay as you go” mobile phones. The level of electronic cigarette use may also have increased due to the relative affordability when compared to conventional tobacco cigarettes. Either way I feel that all forms of smoking should be discouraged - though electronic fags may be a lot less damaging that their "real world" equivalents.

The ending video this week is a bit of a conundrum. It was posted on YouTube some time ago, when I originally came across it. It is a slideshow of photographs of Erith over recent years. I contacted the young lady who put it together, as a large number of the still images had been lifted without permission from my Flickr photo site; to her credit she was mortified (she had not heard of copyright law, and was still at school). I let it go, as she had put the presentation together with the best of intentions, and I did not want to discourage her obvious creativity. See what you think below - you can Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.