The pier.

The photos above were taken by me on Erith Pier on Friday afternoon - click on either for a larger version. The upper photo shows the general cargo carrier the M.V Elke W, which had just departed the wharf at ADM Oils in Lower Belvedere, and was heading down river on a 24 hour journey to the port of Harlingen in The Netherlands. The lower photo shows the "dog leg" part of Erith Pier; bearing in mind the wonderful weather on Friday, it was surprising that there were not more people there.  Erith Pier is the longest pier on the River Thames, and a wonderful place to be on a warm and sunny day. It is a bit of a pity that Erith Pier os not better known outside of the local area; I feel if properly handled and publicised, it could well become a bit of a tourist attraction. It could do with a public toilet and a small cart selling tea, coffee and soft drinks, to be open during the summer months. I do know that an application was made some years ago by a local couple to open such a cart, but the council turned them down. Perhaps now is the time for a new application? What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Some of the most important and interesting stories that I feature on the Maggot Sandwich are those sent to me by readers; contrary to some opinions, I do not find every story myself. In some cases the people who supply the information prefer to remain anonymous, and I will always respect this; other times the person is happy to be named. Earlier this week I had an Email from a chap called Jerry who told me about a fascinating and very worthwhile project that has recently been set up. A significant breakthrough in cancer research has been made, which uses the processing power of mobile phones to carry out complex calculations distributed over hundreds or thousands of mobile devices. The technology will be used by researchers from Imperial College London hoping to identify how existing and new drugs can be used to treat cancer. The project, Drug Repositioning Using Grids of Smartphones (DRUGS), marks the official launch of the app in the UK and its first collaboration with a UK university. It previously launched in Australia. Star Wars actor John Boyega is among those encouraging the public to get involved by downloading the app and ‘donating’ the processing power of their idle smartphones while they sleep. In an interview with the Metro news website, Dr Kirill Veselkov, who is leading the team at Imperial College London’s department of surgery and cancer, said: "We are currently generating huge volumes of health data around the world every day, but just a fraction of this is being put to use. ‘By harnessing the processing power of thousands of smartphones, we can tap into this invaluable resource and look for clues in the datasets. Ultimately, this could help us to make better use of existing drugs and find more effective combinations of drugs tailored to patients, thereby improving treatments." Scientists from the university have designed an algorithm that breaks down large datasets into small chunks. Through DreamLab, these smaller chunks will be analysed by a network of smartphones to try to find links in the data. This could help identify more effective combinations of existing drugs to treat cancer and work out the best treatment for individuals. While this data processing could be performed by a computer, it would take much longer. A desktop computer with an eight-core processor running 24 hours a day would take 300 years to process the data, the developers said. However, a network of 100,000 smartphones running six hours a night could do the same amount of work in three months. A new device – if fully charged and plugged in – could run up to 60 calculations and solve up to 24,000 problems in six hours. Researchers believe that in the long run this work could speed up access to effective drugs and enable tailored treatments for patients. Andrew Dunnett, Director of The Vodafone Foundation, said: “DreamLab is a great example of the transformative power of connectivity and technology. This innovative app gives everyone the chance to play a part in the fight against cancer while they sleep. We hope DreamLab will significantly increase the speed at which Imperial College and other researchers are able to make breakthroughs in cancer research, ultimately saving lives". Whilst the concept of distributed computing is quite new in the mobile arena, it is not new to desktop computers. I was involved for quite some time with the SETI at Home project, which used a computers processing powers whilst idle to analyse radio signal data gathered from a world - wide network of radio telescopes to look for radio signals possibly of extra terrestrial origin.  The concept is the same, although the methods of operation and delivery vary somewhat. Using idle smart phones to beat cancer has got to be a very good thing indeed. Thanks to Jerry for bringing this story to my attention. 

Regarding submitting stories for inclusion on the Maggot Sandwich, some guidelines; any story needs to be with me by the Thursday night prior to publication on Sunday; this is to allow me to check the factual accuracy of the story, and to edit and reformat the text where necessary. Please send text in plain Email format - not in Microsoft Word, as contrary to popular opinion, Word is not a standard format (a word document contains a lot of hidden metadata that has to be stripped out prior to being uploaded into the Blogger interface). I do occasionally get stories sent to me on a Sunday morning, with a request that it be included in the latest update - which is published early on each Sunday afternoon. Unless there is a really compelling reason, such stories will be carried over to the next edition. Every Maggot Sandwich update takes around ten hours to research, write, edit and error check, all of which is carried out in my spare time. I do not accept advertising or any kind of goods in kind for any promotion - the blog is entirely run as a free local news and information portal with no political or economic bias.

The proposed Energy Park outlined in the picture above - click on it for a larger view - would be located at Norman Road in Belvedere, on land to the west of the existing Riverside Resource Recovery Facility and would form an important part of London’s energy and resource management infrastructure. As well as generating clean energy from energy recovery, anaerobic digestion (for local food and green waste) and solar panels, the proposed Energy Park would also incorporate up to 20 MWh of battery storage to supply additional power to meet London’s demand at peak times.

I am very concerned about the cruise ship terminal that is being created at Enderby Wharf in Greenwich; readers may wonder why my concerns are being directed at a location outside of my normal coverage area, and one that is more properly covered by Darryl Chamberlain of the excellent 853 Blog; well the reasons are actually rather straightforward. As you may already be aware, there is a long established campaign to force the operators of the cruise ship terminal to install shore - side power for the visiting cruise ships, so that they do not have to operate their internal electrical generators to power the vessels whilst in port. The campaigners say that for each cruise ship in port. and running its' generators will create as much pollution as 680 lorries over a 24 hour period. The terminal operators do not want to install shore side power for the cruise ships, due to the additional cost this would create. In an interview in the News Shopper earlier last week, campaigner Laura Eyres said of a cruise ship that docked at the Enderby Wharf port over the recent Bank Holiday weekend that :- "Having campaigned about the plans for a cruise port over the past few months, it was quite a rude awakening to see one of this size parked in Greenwich on the morning of the local election results. The ship ran its engines constantly over the bank holiday and we were horrified to see the amount of smoke it was generating. The smoke blew across to homes, a new children’s playground at New Capital Quay and people just out by the river enjoying the sunshine. Our petition continues to rise steadily with several hundred signatures every week. We noticed a peak in signatures in the period after the bank holiday weekend. We have amassed widespread support not only from residents across the whole borough, but also from MPs on both sides of the river and all the local parties. The cruise terminal was a pivotal issue in the local elections. We have also written to the new leader of Greenwich Council offering our congratulations and asking for a meeting.” The petition currently stand at around 6,500 signatures. One factual error in Laura Eyres makes in her statement is that she confuses the ship running its generators with the ship running its engines - the two things are mutually exclusive. No ship would run its main engines in port, due to the very high cost - their fuel consumption is eye wateringly high. Instead they run shore - side generators, which whilst still using a lot of fuel, are somewhat more efficient than the main engines, especially when all they are going is providing electricity, rather than motive power. I have noticed several journalists making the same mistake. I digress. The problem which this situation creates in the local area covered by the Maggot Sandwich, is that when the cruise liner port at Enderby Wharf is in full operation, a far larger number of cruise liners will be coming up the River Thames and into London, and in so doing will pass Slade Green, Erith, Lower Belvedere and Abbey Wood on their way to Greenwich. Whilst travelling up the river they will not be operating their electrical generators, but running their main motive power engines, with the "full fat" pollution that this will bring - and don't forget that unlike the residents of Greenwich, who are supposed to be benefitting from the increased trade that tourists will bring to the area, residents in the towns that line the banks of the Thames on the route will have all of the pollution and none of the benefits - something that seems to have been overlooked in the whole environmental debate until now. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

There is a change in the Maggot Sandwich this week - although you would not be able to tell; this week the Blog update has been carried out  on a different computer. Normally I use my trusty Apple iMac to create the content for the Blog, but this week I am using my new "backup computer" in the shape of my new Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+ which is now resident in the office in Pewty Acres. The primary role of the Raspberry Pi is to be a very cheap (£35) credit card sized, flexible computer for children to learn programming, much in the way the kids of my generation learned to program the early 8 bit computers of the day such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and the Commodore 64. I was pretty much self taught in computing; when I was at school, computer studies was a very new field, and generally maths teachers were given the job of teaching pupils about computers. Some were excellent, many had little training and less aptitude for the job. At my school, a fair number of pupils knew way more than the computer studies teacher. I recall the time when my friend Roy and I rewrote the CP/M operating system disk on the school’s solitary Research Machines 380Z so that instead of saying on boot up “Research Machines 380Z Basic (C) RM 1979” it said “Washing Machines 380Z Basic (C) Hugh and Roy”. The teacher went ballistic – saying “you’ve broken the computer!” and banning us from the computer room for a month. He could not grasp the fact that we had copied the operating system onto a fresh floppy disc, and only made changes to the copy. This kind of innocent (and sometimes not so innocent) tinkering was a key way we learned how to program and also modify computer hardware. It also helped that this all happened at the beginning of the home computer revolution in 1981/82. The BBC Micro, the Sinclair ZX81, and a little later the ZX Spectrum, and a host of other pioneering machines were making their way into the bedrooms of children all over the UK. Compared with kids in the USA, who had Apple II‘s and IBM PC’s, which at the time had a substantially greater amount of processing clout, us Brits were struggling with computers with very limited resources indeed. Back then almost all kids could program their computers with a varying degree of skill. My own programming abilities were okay – my BASIC programming code was horribly inelegant and messy, but it usually worked – in the end. Since these golden days of the dawn of the home computer age, things have changes in many ways, some for the better, but many for the worse. Until relatively recently, school children have not been taught programming for years; instead computer studies lessons are mainly in how to use Microsoft Office or other proprietary applications. Little consideration has been given to how computers actually work, or how a student can develop their own software. If lucky, they may have learned a bit of simple HTML, but that’s about as far as things went for many years. Now, with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, today's children are able to learn modern programming languages such as Scratch and Python on extremely affordable hardware - hopefully leading to a future generation of programmers and software developers.

I very rarely comment on stories that make the national press; the reason for this is that if it has been covered in the professional press (who are far better equipped than I) then there is little need for me to add anything. Secondly; national stories are really outside of my main remit - that is, to highlight issues affecting residents in and around the Northern wards of the London Borough of Bexley. This week I am making a notable exception; as regular readers will be aware, I have been quite strident in my coverage of moves to restrict the usage of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in high street betting shops. I first wrote of my opposition to FOBT's back in January 2014, which you can read by clicking here. I am glad to say that finally the government have taken what appears to be appropriate action, and are limiting the maximum stake to be gambled to £2 per go from the current £100 stake. Bookmaking company William Hill have announced that the reduction in maximum FOBT stake will impact their annual profits, and they could fall by between £70 and £100 million, and could well lead to betting shops being closed with consequent job losses. To my mind this just shows how much money the gambling organisations make out of some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society. It is no wonder that one can directly correlate the number of betting shops against the most deprived areas of the UK - something that I have covered in detail in the past. Gambling addiction is a specific and savage curse, mostly on the poorest section of the community. There are an estimated 430,000 people who consider themselves addicts, and 2.3 million who admit they are “at risk”. Almost half of those who use the machines admit to being addicted. Some surveys put this proportion as high as 80 percent. I know what will happen - the large gambling corporations will merely offshore their FOBT enterprises - in order to circumvent the changes in the regulations, which at this stage only cover physical gambling machines located in high street shops. All of the big gambling companies have web based presences, usually located in offshore tax havens, and not subject to British law. I would anticipate that they will create new "opportunities" to play web based virtual FOBT machines, thus bypassing legislation changes. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier I referred to "proper" journalist Darryl Chamberlain of the 853 Blog; Darryl has recently covered a story which may well be of interest to Maggot Sandwich readers; if you don't already follow the 853 Blog as I do, I would urge you to do so. Darryl has written a piece on the forthcoming two new Woolwich ferries, which are scheduled to replace the three very old and worn out vessels that currently run the service, and are constantly breaking down - you can see a photo of one of the old vessels above - click on the photo for a larger view. The two new ferries are currently under construction in Poland, and have just been launched. They still require interior fit - out and painting, but they are already completely recognisable. You can read Darryl's article on the forthcoming new Woolwich ferries by clicking here.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly from Barnehurst ward:- "This is our first report in regards to the new Barnehurst ward boundaries and we start with some excellent news with no crimes of note reported. We are slowly getting to know our new patch and have been speaking to residents concerning local concerns as well as taking over ongoing issues from the Colyers team. We would like to thank PC Mo Bangura, PC Mike Cuell and PCSO Muriel Edwards for the work they have done over the years in keeping the ward safe. The new team consists of experienced officers with over 50 years of policing service between them. Our pet hates amongst others are Burglaries, drugs and ASB and we will work tirelessly in combating these using all the available resources at our disposal, including working closely with the local authority and housing associations. However we need your help, Neighbourhood Watch plays an important part in keeping any ward safe and we would like to achieve 100 percent coverage. If you know anyone in the ward that is interested in becoming a Coordinator, please ask them to email the Neighbourhood Watch office at bexwatch-office@btconnect.com to see if their street is covered or feel free to contact the team. We will be actively recruiting new members over the summer months and introducing ourselves to the current Coordinators over the next couple of weeks. Finally a big thank you to the Barnehurst ward Coordinators who remained with us after the boundary changes. We will be at Barnehurst Golf Course on Friday 18th May at 11am. Please feel free to join us for a chat about any local issues that may be of concern or just pop along to say Hi". Belvedere ward:- "Thursday 10th May was the Belvedere ward panel, which was once again well attended with some new faces. The panel met with the 2 newly elected ward Councillors – Sally Hinkley and Dave Putson. The team are keen to work with the councillors to help keep Belvedere safe. The following priorities were set by the panel; 1) Motor-vehicle crime; 2) Drugs; 3) Anti Social Behaviour (ASB). We held another anti-theft number plate screw event on Friday with the AA fitting and giving out 37 sets of anti-theft screws. We utilised the CCTV van, parking it on various hot spots on the ward at the weekend. This turned out to be a huge success, stopping 38 people and obtaining 16 intelligence reports so we shall look to repeat this tactic over coming weeks. We also stopped a van on Dylan Road by Belvedere Train Station that we suspected of fly tipping – all turned out to be in order and documentation was checked. An off road bike which had been pictured and posted on social media by the Thamesmead Team riding in Lesnes Abbey park has been identified and the rider has been issued with a Section 59 warning. The section 59 warning gives officers the powers to seize a vehicle acting in an anti-social manner. The team have issued 7 so far this Spring and will be using this tactic to reduce vehicle ASB. There has been an 83 percent reduction in vehicle ASB calls this year compared to last year so we are confident our approach is working and making the roads and public spaces in Belvedere safer". Bexleyheath ward:- "As you may or may not be aware, all the wards on the Borough had had their ward boundaries changed. Double-check your ward at https://www.met.police.uk/your-area/. As a result we have taken on new streets as well as losing some and are in the process of trying to get to grips with the changes, our team name has also changed and we are now called Bexleyheath SNT. We are hoping to make contact with the Neighbourhood Watches on the new streets that we have taken on to introduce ourselves and to make sure they have the correct details needed to make contact with us. Our team contact number has remained the same, but if you wish to contact us via email, our new one is Bexleyheath.SNT@met.pnn.police.uk. We have been informed the original team mailbox will still be able to receive emails but have no ideal for how long.  In relation to what has been going on the ward. Over the last week, we have had no reported burglaries which is great news for us all. We recently had a meeting with parents and partners from the Council in relation to issues with persistent Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) issues on the ward and we are targeting those who are known to us who persistently cause ASB. We had been informed that the Car Park by the Marriott Hotel was very heavily graffitied. We have attended and can confirm it was as bad as we were told. The team shall be conducting patrols in the car park and are looking into what has been done. We are holding a Bike Marking Event on Saturday 9th June along the Broadway between 10am and 2pm. Please feel free to pop along with your bikes and get them marked, also spread the word to others to also come along and get their bikes property marked. If you would like to contact us, please feel free to make contact via email, twitter or over the phone - details above. For crime prevention advice, please look at the Met Police website which does have information that you may find useful. In an emergency please dial 999 and 101 for non-urgent reporting". Crayford ward:- "First of all, welcome to the residents who are now part of Crayford ward. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook. On 11th May a wallet containing cash cards and driving licence were stolen from Crayford High Street and the cards were fraudulently used to obtain goods. On 12th May a vehicle was interfered with whilst parked in Green Walk. Between 13.00 on 12th May and 10.30 on 13th May there was an attempted burglary at the newly built houses in Crayford Way, a similar offence was committed at the newly built houses in Iron Mill Lane between 5th and 14th May, whereby entry was attempted in to a house and tools were stolen from locked containers. A red Renault Clio was stolen from Wyatt Road between 6pm on Sunday 13th May and 2pm on Monday 14th May. On 10th May between 5.30 and 6pm a Carrera bicycle that was locked to a bike rack outside Sports Direct at Tower Retail Park was stolen. Overnight on 10th May the nearside window to a Mercedes was smashed whilst parked on the road in Claremount Crescent. There have been shop lifting offences at Tower Retail Park. This week officers from our team issued a Section 59 warning to the rider of a moped that had been pulling continuous wheelies in front of a bus, endangering not just himself but the passengers on the bus if the bus had to take avoiding action. Two mobile phone tickets were given out as well as a speeding ticket. Many people were also given words of advice about their driving. Anti-social behaviour has become an increasing issue in quite a few areas around Crayford and has involved several vehicles causing litter by discarding take away packaging and food and drinks as well as nitrous oxide canisters. We are working closely with our partners at London Borough of Bexley to find the best course of action to deal with this as well as other offences that may have been caused. We have been given several number plates of those concerned and will be following this up. Please accept our apologies that our coffee with cops on Wednesday 16th May had to be cancelled at the last moment as the team were urgently required elsewhere. We will be at the Age Concern coffee morning on 25th May at Crayford Library between 11.30-12.30 and will be happy to listen if you have any concerns you would like to speak with us about". Erith ward:- "We have had quite a few Theft of and from Motor vehicles over the last week. Please see the links below for advice. No Residential burglary this week. A few crimes to report from this week: Criminal Damage 09/05/2018 Avenue Road; Theft of cycle 07/05/2018 James Watt Way; Theft of cycle 09/05/2018 Parkspring Court, Erith High Street; Theft from Motor Vehicle 10/05/2018 Riverdale Road; Theft of Motor Vehicle 13/05/2018 Christ Church Vicarage, Victoria Road; Theft of Motor Vehicle 14/05/2018 Erith Road; Shoplifting £200 15/05/2018 Wickes Building Supplies Ltd, Fraser Road". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Good news, we have had no burglaries or motor vehicle crime reported to us over the last week. We are now covering parts of the former Colyers ward and getting to grips with the area. The team are attending St. Fidelis school on Friday afternoon this week for an Aspirations day. The pupils will get to talk to a number of people from different professions to find out what their jobs entail on a daily basis. We have been working on the investigation of two crimes this week .One investigation into the criminal damage of a car windscreen which took place in Collindale Avenue last month, a suspect was identified by police for this and interviewed under caution at the police station. The other investigation, following up from the warrant we executed in Brook Street last week, two further suspects have been interviewed under caution at the police station". Slade Green and North End ward:- "There was a burglary overnight on the 11/12 May in Hazel Drive. An empty property being renovated had power tools stolen. Also overnight on 12/13 May there were 2 vehicle crimes on the Frobisher Road estate. One vehicle had a window smashed and another vehicle was stolen from the estate. During the weekend there were hub caps stolen from a vehicle at the John Pye auction site in Manor Road. A male was arrested by Mark and James last week - he was wanted for failing to attend a drug assessment. He has been charged and awaits an appointment to attend court. Mark and James found a knife in Erith Town centre last week. It is unclear if it was used in any crime but at least it is one more dangerous weapon off the streets. If you were not already aware, the recent ward boundary changes have had very little impact on our ward. We have lost the bottom part of Eversley Avenue and have gained Britannia Close in Erith (which we always thought was ours anyway!). Our ward name has slightly altered also to Slade Green and Northend. This has not affected our team email address with any correspondence to NorthendSNT@met.police.uk still coming through to us. We are not sure if that is due to change in future but we will keep you updated". Thamesmead East ward:- "Burglaries - On Wednesday 09/05/18 between the hours of 07:05pm and 07:30pm on Thursday 10/05/18 a pedal cycle was stolen from the communal area of a block of flats in Fairway Drive.  Motor Vehicle Crimes - Between the hours of 08:30 pm on Saturday 12/05/18 and 02:00 pm on Sunday 13/05/18 a pair of aluminium vehicle ramps were stolen from a vehicle Recovery lorry which was parked in the car parking area of Alsike Road. A motor cycle which had broken down on Eastern Way, which was left locked and secure by the owner was stolen between the hours of 02:00pm Saturday 12/05/18 and 11:00am Sunday 13/05/18 when the owner and a friend returned to the location to recover his bike and found that it had been removed by person(s) unknown. The victim contacted the council to find out if they had removed it but there was no trace. Have a Say event. Thursday 24/05/18 between the hours of 11:00 am and 12:00 pm the team will be attending The Lakeside Medical Centre, Yarnton Way. An opportunity for members of the community who prefer face- to – face contact, to speak with a Dedicated Ward Officer".

The end video this week finishes off pretty much where we started; it is some drone footage taken on and around Erith Pier. It gives a very good idea of just how large the pier is - the longest on the River Thames by quite some margin. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

More fish?

Anyone who has ever visited, or even passed through Erith will be familiar with the object above - the infamous Erith Fish Sculpture, which occupies the centre of the roundabout in the town centre which connects Bronze Age Way, Queen's Road, Bexley Road and Fraser Road. Opinion on the sculpture is divided. As many long term readers will know, I have not been a fan since it was installed; in fact I originally described it as a "hideous psychedelic "Mister Whippy" style turd crapped on the town by some passing space alien". My views have now moderated somewhat. Erith is now so well known (notorious?) for the fish roundabout that it has become a real local landmark, and a key part of the identity of the town. I have been asked by people unfamiliar with the area how they will know when they have reached their destination. My response has been - "when you see the fish roundabout, trust me you will know!" The fish sculpture was created by local artist Gary Drostle, who has his studio in the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, less than five minutes walk from the roundabout. Gary is set to create several unique artworks for the Erith Quarry residential development site that is bounded by Bexley Road and Fraser Road. In an interview with the Bexley Times last week,  Gary Drostle said:- "It’s always a pleasure to work on a project so close to home,” said Mr Drostle. In this case the mural will be displayed just minutes from my studio on Fraser Road! The Quarry has a fascinating history, which will be a key source of inspiration for my artwork, and I am looking forward to working with London and Quadrant and Anderson's over the coming months to produce something the whole community will be able to enjoy.” Let's just hope Gary creates something a little less challenging for local residents this time around. The first houses on the Erith Quarry site are due to be completed some time late in the summer. I will be visiting the development to give an update on progress in the fairly near future. Back in 1973 the site now occupied by the Gary Drostle fish sculpture roundabout was then the location of the Wheatley Hotel - a Railway Hotel. A Railway Hotel was a combination of a pub downstairs, and a bed and breakfast upstairs; almost all railway stations at one stage or other had a railway hotel in close proximity - in this case, Erith Station was just across the road. In the time before the invention of the car, people travelling around the country would often need to break their train journey overnight. A room in a railway hotel was cheaper than a full hotel, as the features tended to be more basic, but they were convenient - they fulfilled the same function as  a modern Premier Inn - cheap and clean, at least in most cases. On top of this, local residents would use the pub located on the ground floor. I understand that the Wheatley Hotel was a pretty lively place on a Friday and Saturday night.

Nowadays Bexley is served by the excellent Bexley Brewery, located on the Manford Industrial Estate at the far Eastern end of Manor Road, just beneath the Erith Wind Turbine. The brewery is extremely successful, and produces some absolutely top notch ales, of which I am a great fan indeed - I was in the brewery on Friday lunchtime, picking up a couple of fresh pints for the weekend; whilst I was there a film crew were filming head brewer Cliff as he prepared a new brew. I have no idea what the filming is for, but no doubt I will find out sooner rather than later. It was not always the case. The local area was poorly served by local brewers for a very long time, although one former brewery certainly divided opinion.  If you ask a number of retired people who have lived locally for any length of time about Beasley’s Beer, you will get a number of responses – not all of them good. Beasley’s Brewery was located in Plumstead, in Brewery road, off Lakedale Road.  Before the Second World War,  it was owned by Harry Geoffrey Beasley, who had inherited the brewery. The income from this made him wealthy, and enabled him to spend much of his life engaged in his passion for anthropology; he travelled the world studying various tribes and peoples, and wrote many academic papers on the subject. He was considered to be a leader in his field of study, and in 1932 he became president of The Royal Anthropological Institute, a post he held until 1937, when ill – health in the form of Diabetes meant he had to stand down from the office. For most of his married life he lived in Cranmore House in Chislehurst, where he set up the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum, which housed six thousand exhibits that Beasley had collected during his travels. He died in 1939, when his collection was moved to the British Museum – just in time, as the house was destroyed during the Blitz. From the records I have read, Harry Beasley had a pretty hands – off relationship with the brewery from which he derived his not inconsiderable income. Some time ago, Local resident Roger Jewiss recalled the following story about day to day life for the average working man in Beasley’s Brewery: "My Grandfather was a blacksmith and during the depression found work a bit hard to find. He was pleased to get two days work to do a repair in the brewery. All employees were given two brass tokens a day which they could exchange for a pint of beer. My grandfather, very hot at his temporary forge, had used his tokens and was indeed very pleased when a brewery worker called down to him, “ Fancy a pint blacky?” “ Not 'arf,” replied my grandfather. Soon after, a copper vessel came slowly down from the vat above, on a long wire, and my grandfather gratefully quenched his thirst. “ Thanks”, he shouted back to his new friend, “that certainly was a long pint.”  “PINT!” came the reply, “that vessel held a gallon!”. The account was originally published on the Plumstead Stories website that you can see here. My Grandfather on my Mum’s side (and indeed my Mum) called the output of the brewery “Beasley’s beastly beer” as they both heartily loathed it. Apparently this was a not uncommon opinion at the time, thought for a period I understand that their beers had a royal warrant – if anyone has any details, I would love to hear from them. Beasley’s Brewery was taken over by the much larger Courage in 1963; not much later it was closed down. You can see a collection of Beasley Brewery photographs and beer mats which have been framed and hung on the wall of the excellent Robin Hood and Little John pub in Lion Road, Bexleyheath.

Regular Maggot Sandwich reader Deborah contacted me shortly after I published last week's Blog update to let me know that Vox amplifier inventor Dick Denney was her Mum's next door neighbour for many years. His idea grew from a portable amplifier-speaker unit he developed, while convalescing from illness in 1952, for use with his Hawaiian guitar. In 1955, Dick demonstrated his system - not the first to be made in this country, but certainly the most effective - to the owner of a Dartford music shop, Tom Jennings, who proposed a joint manufacturing venture. So began Jennings Musical Industries, and the trademark, Vox, was applied to all Dick's JMI work. Indeed, the early 1960s rise of British guitar groups caused an explosion of interest that left JMI struggling to keep up with demand. Dick produced three more original designs - a 100-watt amplifier, three times the power of any previous equipment; a guitar-organ, allowing the guitarist to produce his own accompaniment; and a wireless microphone system, the forerunner of those used in today's stage musicals. This was on top of his work on his most famous creation, the Vox AC30 amplifier - the sound of the "British Invasion". Dick was born in Erith, and, at an early age, became interested in the guitar and amateur radio, whose novelty attracted thousands of hobbyists in the 1930s and to this day. He was soon a leading exponent of the Hawaiian guitar, and his radio skills enabled him to listen to American shortwave radio broadcasts, which inspired his creation of instruments and amplifying equipment. His fragile health excluded him from wartime armed forces; instead, he worked at Vickers' munitions factory, in Crayford, where he first met the accordion-playing Jennings, who shared his interest in musical innovation. After the war, Dick ran a radio and sound equipment shop at Belvedere, Kent, until illness - and the idea for the Vox - struck in 1952. Jennings sold JMI in 1964, by which time a franchise agreement had been struck with an American manufacturer for use of the Vox name. Dick left the company in 1967 to pursue a career as an independent consultant and designer, which he maintained until his death. You can see a very rare clip of Dick Denney on American TV quiz / light entertainment show "I've got a Secret" where he demonstrates the then brand new and very far ahead of its time Vox V251 Guitar Organ to a somewhat confused panel of contestants. The guitar organ shown in the video was the prototype, and the only one in existence when the TV show was filmed. Around seventy hand built models followed, but due to the bulk, requirement for an additional external power supply and the complexity of the guitar organ, not to mention the weight around the players' neck, the model may have been groundbreaking, but it was never a big seller. It was a direct predecessor, and inspiration to the SynthAxe of the mid 1980's. Yet another case of Vox being ahead of the game by a considerable distance.



One reader posted the following comment on Vox / JML last week:- "Your article on JMI brought back a few memories! I worked there in the office from 1966, and musicians would come in to arrange what equipment they wanted. Dave Clark would pop in wearing scruffy jeans and a t-shirt instead of his smart stage suit. One time I went across to the factory and there was Brian Jones (Stones) sitting cross-legged up on a pile of pallets playing a flute, in a world of his own. Meeting 'rock stars' in that environment made me see them not as idols, but people doing their job. Still bought their records though!" I also discovered that renowned Guitarist Vic Flick used one in recording the “James Bond Theme” heard first on the Dr. No soundtrack (1962). The Shadows, the great instrumental group led by guitarist Hank Marvin, were early adopters of Vox as well. I have had several former JMI / Vox employees contact me over the last couple of weeks with a number of recollections of working at either the Dartford or Erith factories. I have been in a bit of a quandary; the accounts that I have been sent do not always tally, with significant differences between them. Obviously memories dim - the events took place well over fifty years ago, it is only to be expected under the circumstances. I will be publishing further recollections of the company over the next couple of weeks; it was a very significant contributor to the whole 60's music scene.

I have long maintained that the Oyster card public travel prepayment system used by Transport for London (TFL) is full of faults and inconsistencies; this week this was only thrown into sharp relief by a report from the London Evening Standard. London’s commuters have been charged £365 million in the past six years for forgetting to tap in and out at train stations. One of the worst hot spots for Oyster over - charging is Bank station - a destination / interchange very commonly used by Bexley residents. The total revenue raised from incomplete journeys on the transport network rose by £53 million in just twelve months, increasing from a total of £277m in 2015 to £330m in 2016. In addition, those using contactless cards who did not tap in or out have been charged £40 million since 2015, with £5 million reimbursed. TfL said they have regular announcements and signage at stations reminding customers to touch in and out, and also regularly run marketing campaigns. There are also leaflets outlining how to use Oyster and Contactless at our stations and online. While they collect fares on behalf of National Rail, the London Overground and Docklands Light Railway, they are not responsible for the signage in all stations in the network. Nevertheless it does show that the refunding functionality of the greater Oyster card operation is failing and is not currently fit for purpose. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I was doing some research into the history of Chislehurst Caves this week; I knew that they had a very strong link to the 1960's and early 1970's London live music scene, and bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Status Quo all played on the small stage within the caves. Chislehurst Caves are not naturally occurring; it would be more accurate to call the place Chislehurst Mine, as it was originally a chalk and flint nodule mine, the earliest reference to which dates back to at least 1215AD. Pretty much everyone knows that it was a huge and impenetrable bomb shelter during much of World War II, but what is less known is that in the years shortly before the war it was Britain's largest mushroom farm! The caves have also been used as a location for a number of TV shows and some big screen movies, of varying budget and quality. The classic Doctor Who story "The Mutants", the spectacular flop that was the 1986 film "Biggles - Adventures in Time" and possibly most notably, the 1981 micro budgetted British sci fi horror movie "Inseminoid" were filmed mainly in the cave complex.

Some good news for local employment - the Amazon delivery warehouse located in Crabtree Manorway North in Lower Belvedere is due to take on some additional employees due to an expansion countrywide over the next year which will include the addition of around five thousand new jobs, at least some of which will be locally based. I know that opinion regarding Amazon and their working practices is divided, but more local jobs has got to be a good thing overall.

As anyone who closely follows Malcolm Knight's excellent "Bexley is Bonkers" blog, a huge amount of redevelopment and new construction work has been carried out in and around Abbey Wood for the last few years, and the completion of Crossrail next year will not bring an end to the work; if anything it may well increase as the whole area becomes more attractive to wealthier people from outside of the region, who look towards Abbey Wood, Thamesmead and Plumstead as being desirable places to move into due to their vastly improved transport connections. Much of Thamesmead is to be redeveloped, and it is predicted that the area around Abbey Wood Station will become a very desirable location. One victim of this development work has been The Cat Cuddles Sanctuary, which is run by Evina Koroni and has been running since 2009, although Evina has been fostering cats for charities such as Cats Protection Greenwich, Celia Hammond and Cats Protection Bexley. The sanctuary is threatened with closure after its application for planning permission was rejected by Greenwich Council. All in all this is a rather run of the mill story, and not one you would expect to create much in the way of upset. Not in this case. The News Shopper comments section on the story has gone mad; there are a small and very vocal number of residents from the area around the sanctuary who appear to be utterly opposed to the sanctuary, whatever accommodations or compromises the sanctuary operators offer. It would appear that feelings are running extremely high, but it seems to me that the real reason has nothing to do with the Cat Cuddles Sanctuary at all, the sanctuary situation is merely the focus of the frustrations of Abbey Wood residents over the problems that they have with overcrowding and car parking. As one rather more reasoned and sensible commenter writes:- "It seems that a very small minority have unfounded complaints mainly about an issue that has been resolved, and yet this comes up time and time again despite a suitable remedy being in place for some time. It is unfortunate that this issue is overshadowing the reality of this situation and hopefully there will be a positive outcome. This is not a sanctuary but a foster home where a few cats are living until new homes are found, would you have these poor creatures left in unsafe situations? There is little point in constantly combating against an issue that has been resolved, I have visited this street on many occasions and never had an issue with obstructions on the pavement. Parking has also never been an issue though this is London, in my street commuters come and park all day, the parking issue can be easily resolved with parking restrictions imposed though this it seems this is not currently needed or surely it would have already been addressed by now. This is rather like a tennis match with one person claiming there are continual litter deliveries and despite several people saying this has now been sorted and has been for some considerable time the main complainant does not acknowledge this. It seems that ears is upset for some reason and unwilling at this stage to consider communicating about existing rather than historic issues. As for the parking issue there is a lot of building work going on which is likely to increase cars in the area. Several of the staff have said they get the bus to volunteer at the foster home but this too is ignored in the comments. I for one park in Howarth Road to go to the garden centre as it is safer than parking on that main road. Impartial evidence provided from the environmental health states there is no issue with odour or noise and I have never noted any such issue. Again this appears to be an emotional rather than evidential response from a minority. It is difficult when upset to consider objective evidence, perhaps some distance and consideration of facts rather than anecdotal subjective opinion will assist in gaining clarity. I have seen that attendance at the foster home is by appointment only, this would indicate the proprietor is considering the impact and dealing with it in a considerate manner. Someone states they have 6 cars at their property, how many other people have multiple car ownership so is it a matter of residents parking that causes congestion rather than visitors. If the foster home was to close and a network of fosterers for example put in place, more cars would actually visit that address for advice and quick pick up for collection of the fostered animal on day of arrival which would exacerbate not resolve parking issues. That said I have never been unable to park in Howarth Road in the ten years of frequenting the area for a variety of reasons. As properties are coming on the market it seems many are being turned into HMOs, I know which sort of residence I would want in my street having suffered this, and many, though not all landlords allow properties to fall into a terrible state and residents, again not all, do not take responsibility for containing noise and rubbish to a reasonable level. The world is a selfish place, it really would be good if a charity that helps local people and animals, having operated without issues for so many years is allowed to continue. The noise and mess made by foxes is arguable far more noticeable than the quiet, calm of the foster home on Howarth Road. I will certainly support any motion for Evina Koroni to continue to deliver this invaluable service to the community and the poor creatures that would surely die in part without her and her team and appeal for scrutinisation of facts rather than the emotional responses that are so far noted here". You can read the full story, along with the huge array of comments both for and against the cat sanctuary by clicking here. I get the feeling that as the population of the local area increases over the next decade, such neighbourhood conflicts are only going to become more common and heated. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

And now a serious appeal for help by the local Police. Apologies for the grainy image above, but it was taken from a security camera located in the entrance hall of a retirement care home in Hazel Road, Slade Green at two minutes past ten in the evening on Sunday the 5th February. Video footage shows two scumbags stealing a large flat screen TV that they had taken from the old people's home. Anyone who knows who the scrote pictured above is can take some satisfaction in dropping them deeply in it by contacting Bexley CID via 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Needless to say that the criminals are utterly the lowest of the low. The TV cannot be worth very much in monetary terms, but to the person from whom it was stolen, it would have almost certainly meant the world. When you are housebound, or a resident in a care home, the opportunity to get out often does not present itself very often, and for those with mobility or cognitive challenges, it can mean that the only real contact they have with the world outside of the home is via their television. I know this from experience - my late Dad was a resident at the Gallions View nursing home until his death in 2011, and for many of the residents of the home depended wholly on their televisions. How two individuals could lack the empathy and compassion to blatantly steal from an old people's home is utterly beyond me. I hope that these two are caught as soon as possible. If you can help, you can let the Police know anonymously should you so wish.

Manor Road in Erith has a rich industrial history that is unknown to many local residents. Before the First World War Erith possessed extensive brick fields in Manor Road, to the East of the town centre. The deposit of the iron rich brick earth stretched all the way into Slade Green, where a company called Rutter's Brick Works was in operation for many years. The finished bricks were exported by ship from Anchor Bay Wharf, which was connected to the pits and brickworks by a tramway. The semi liquid brick clay was transferred from the more distant pits to the main brickworks in Manor Road by a network of iron pipes; apparently the ovens which fired the bricks were kept working around the clock, and in cold weather it was not uncommon to find tramps and vagrants using the buildings as somewhere warm and dry to spend the night. Nowadays many businesses are still based at the Eastern end of the road, whilst the Western end is exclusively residential.

Pollution campaigners protesting against the proposed London City Cruise Port at Greenwich’s Enderby Wharf have seen their latest, and possibly last, legal attempt to halt the development fail. A crowd-funded attempt to appeal a High Court ruling which endorsed the application was rejected by Lord Justice Henderson last Wednesday (February the 22nd). East Greenwich Residents Association, had taken Greenwich Borough Council to a judicial review in July 2016 for failing to address the cumulative impact on air quality of cruise liners “hotelling” at the new riverside stop. Campaigners, including Poplar and Limehouse MP Jim Fitzpatrick, had argued that on-shore power supply would prevent cruise liners having to run their heavy fuel oil engines 24 hours a day. That was considered by the council and operators to be unusual, expensive and impractical. When the judge ruled in the judicial review that the council had made no error in law in reaching its decision last year, the campaigners sought permission to appeal, which has now been refused. Without the provision of cleaner shore based power supplies, it is feared that the level of particulates and sulphur in the air not only in Enderby Wharf, but along the river Thames corridor - which will include Plumstead, Thamesmead, Abbey Wood, Lower Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green will also suffer as the cruise ships transit up and down river on a daily basis.

The end video this week is a bit of a find. It is the driver's eye view from the cab of a networker train as it travels from Erith Station to Cannon Street - a journey many locals make on a regular basis when commuting into London for work. Seeing the journey from the point of view of the train driver is something that you most definitely don't often see.

After the fire.

I think pretty much anyone living within three or four miles of Erith must have seen the terrible pall of filthy black smoke that hung over the town on Monday afternoon. It was almost certainly the worst fire to hit the area  since the notorious arson attack on the Wurth industrial warehouse off Yarnton Way in Lower Belvedere in February of last year. The fire hit the Moat Housing Association block of flats in James Watt Way, between the KFC drive through and Morrison’s petrol station. The photos above show the emergency services as they cleaned up after extinguishing the blaze, which caused extensive damage to the roof and top floor of the brand new apartment block, which has only been occupied for a number of weeks. After speaking to a number of people regarding the event, it would appear that the fire alarm system did not trigger in the building, and several people were unaware of the blaze; one chap mentioned that his daughter and grandchild were asleep in their flat, and only when he rang her mobile phone and woke her up did she find out that the building was alight. As if this was not bad enough, I have heard accounts of external doors jamming and not allowing residents out; this would seem to be borne out by eye witnesses reporting at least one person was forced to climb down an external drainpipe to escape the fire. Thankfully all residents of Moat House were able to escape, and they were temporarily housed in the restaurant in the nearby Morrison’s supermarket, where they were given free food and drink. By this time the fire had been declared a major incident, and a huge number of emergency service vehicles were blocking many of the roads around Erith. Personally I saw fire engines from as far away as Islington and Brixton, not to mention from Grays, just across the River Thames. By 6pm the fire was over, and forensic officers from the London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police were checking the roof. It was originally thought that some of the residents of Moat House who lived on the lower floors were to be allowed back into their flats, whilst those who lived in the upper flats were found alternative accommodation. Some apartments were untouched by the fire, but drenched by the water used to extinguish the blaze. In the end the decision was made to move all of the residents into the Marriott Hotel in Bexleyheath. This has proved somewhat controversial. In an interview with the News Shopper earlier this week, Moat House resident Darren Braithwaite said: “No one even cares. There’s no food for us. Our building has burned down and they do not know what to do, why aren’t they showing some empathy? That is disgusting. We’re stuck in this hotel and it’s just not right. It’s not a place to live. We don’t have any clothes. We look like a bunch of homeless people stuck in a rich hotel. We’re none the wiser but they do not have any other temporary accommodation available. Once we’re split we’re on our own but we’re all standing together on this.” Each resident has been granted a daily allowance to survive while the housing association in charge, Moat, decides its next move. Initially the group was told that each resident was entitled to a £10 bursary until the housing association relented and increased this to £20. The children’s bursary remains at the same level of £5 per day but only the cheapest main on the menu is salad charged at £10. It is currently unclear whether the displaced apartment block residents are permitted to bring in food from outside of the hotel. The whole event has been a bit of a public relations disaster for Moat Housing Association. The roof of Moat House is covered by solar panels; it would seem from initial analysis the fire seems to have started in one of the electrical high tension inverters, but at the time of writing, the investigation is still ongoing. Bearing in mind the apartment block has only been open for a couple of months since construction was completed, there would seem to have been a serious failure in testing and oversight. If the solar panel electrical controls were faulty, this should have been detected during user acceptance testing and not signed off. I get the feeling that there will be some very red faces at the building contractor's project management team right now. I would not be surprised if some form of legal action would result from all of this. What does also immediately strike me is that fire engines had to be sent from as far away as North London to cope with the blaze. It is abundantly clear that the cutbacks in the fire service have gone way too far – many stations, Erith included only have one fire engine – so what happens when there is a fire whilst the single engine is already out on a job? I counted twelve fire engines when I visited the area around Moat House at about five thirty in the afternoon. Bearing in mind that there was a second, very serious fire at around the same time in Greenwich, it seems that much of London’s firefighting capability was taken up. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo above was taken back in 1995, when the Erith Deep Water Wharf was closed, and prior to the start of the redevelopment of the area. No Wharfside Close, and no Aveley Close, and no riverside retirement apartments behind the Cross Keys. As I have written in the past, one of the most underused and overlooked assets that Erith has is the pier. Erith Pier is the longest pier on the River Thames. It was originally constructed for commercial use for the unloading of goods from cargo ships that used to moor at the pier. Most of the cargo were large reels of blank newsprint for what was then Fleet Street and the newspaper printers. Erith Deep Water Wharf provided many local jobs for years, but as container ports such as Tilbury took over, the wharf became less popular with shipping companies, and it was closed down – it remained empty for a number of years. Back in 1998 work started to convert the former wharf into what is now Morrison’s supermarket and the aforementioned pleasure pier, which opened to the public in 1999. The pier is a great place to go for a walk, to watch the world go by, and to watch the river traffic come and go. There were tentative plans a few years ago to extend the Thames Clipper service to Erith Pier, but these came to nothing due to a number of technical issues, and objections from Morrison's supermarket, who did not want commuters taking up parking spaces in their car park. This situation appears to be revisited, according to a story in the London Evening Standard on Wednesday this week. Whilst Erith Pier is not specifically mentioned in the article, it may well be included in the expansion of river transport services. Many people not from the local area are completely unaware of the existence of Erith Pier, and it would not surprise me if this was the case with the original author of the Evening Standard piece. I would personally be interested in commuting to and from Canary Wharf by river if it became a feasible, reliable and affordable transport option. In fact, even discounting the potential expansion of the Thames Clipper service, over the next year or so, the level of shipping using the Thames is scheduled to increase by a substantial amount. The reason for this is that environmental campaigners have recently lost an appeal into the planning approval of a giant cruise liner terminal at Enderby Wharf in Greenwich. They had contended that the air pollution in the residential estates around the proposed cruise linter site would become substantially worse due to the ships using their internal power generators rather than using (substantially more expensive, but far greener) shore side generated power. Protestors said that a cruise liner using internally generated power would create as much air pollution as over six hundred heavy goods vehicles, and they claimed Greenwich Council had not carried out adequate assessment of the emissions from the development before approving the planning permission. But after a two-day hearing the judge Mr Justice Collins ruled against the claimant, and said the development would boost the tourism economy for Greenwich. Thus in time we will see a greater number of cruise liners passing Erith – a boon for local ship spotters such as the members of the World Ship Society, but possibly a pollution problem for residents of Enderby Wharf and the surrounding area.

The photo above shows some horrendous fly tipping, which is happening on an almost daily basis in the ditches and dykes on the Erith and Slade Green Marshes. The shot shows illegally dumped rubbish on Ray Lamb Way, and was taken by a local resident called Guy. Currently there is no CCTV camera system or other such monitoring of the area; bearing in mind it is a "one road in, one road out" area, it would not be particularly difficult or onerous to arrange something of this nature. Parts of the Marshes are supposedly protected areas, though this does not stop fly tippers and illegal bikers to use it for nefarious purposes. Commercial operators (basically any person not in a private car) get charged heavily for legal tipping. A single Transit – type van full of waste can be charged over £100 for a single tipping visit at a licenced waste site. I have spoken to the Council about this. I understand that when illegally tipped waste is cleared up, it is done by a council subcontractor, who charges the council over £300 for the work. Basic arithmetic would dictate that it would be cheaper for the council to allow waste dumping to be carried out by traders for free, rather than to have to clear up the illegally tipped waste at a later stage. I would propose a six month trial period where commercial waste tippers were not charged for using the Crayford dump; in all other ways they would still have to comply with the existing waste disposal rules, and the content of their loads, the company name and vehicle registration number would still be recorded, but no money would change hands. If at the end of the trial, the amount of fly tipped waste had substantially reduced around the borough, then the scheme would be judged a success. I think a pragmatic approach may be worth trialling, as the current system does seem to be failing, and the amount of council tax payers money spent on clearing up after the illegal tippers could be far better spent elsewhere. Don’t think I am opting for a soft approach to criminal activity – I am still strongly of the opinion that catching and prosecuting fly tippers should be a high priority, but a mixture of both carrot and stick, rather than stick alone may deliver better results for both the environment and the council taxpayer. More on illegal bikers now - who says I don't plan these things?



Coincidentally the gang to which a great many illegal bike riders belong to - the Bike Life TV UK group (sometimes disparagingly referred to as "Chavs on Mopeds") that I have featured on several occasions in the past was the subject of a documentary on BBC3 on Tuesday night. Bike Life TV UK are a notorious gang who operate all around the UK, but seem to have their primary base in and around Thamesmead. They not only ride en masse in public areas on unlicensed, stolen and uninsured motorbikes and quad bikes, usually whilst not wearing helmets. As I wrote last week, the not wearing of helmets is a deliberate tactic – the Police will not chase a biker not wearing a helmet, as they are concerned for the safety of the non – helmeted biker. This is a difficult issue with many different factors involved – the trouble is the scumbags know that they are effectively immune from any form of recourse, as they wear masks with the deliberate intent of making themselves unidentifiable. This aura of untouchability that members of Bike Life TV UK have fostered has got to be forcibly changed. Members of the public are losing patience with the Police, who seem to be powerless to stop them. I know that in reality this is not the case, and certainly in Bexley, the Police have got illegal bikers as one of their three highest priorities. I feel that the problem in part comes from central government and the Metropolitan Police leadership, who effectively hamper the actions of the officers “on the ground” with excessively restrictive rules of engagement. What I notice from reading posts on the gang’s Facebook site is that they seem to have a very high rate of attrition. At least three of the gang have died in bike related accidents in the last three or four months. Last July they famously lost a member, when he lost control of his bike and collided with a lamp post at the roundabout which joins Eastern Way junction with Yarnton Way, opposite the Morgan carvery restaurant /  Pub. The London Air Ambulance attended the scene to take the critically injured motorcyclist by air to the Royal London Hospital where he later died. If the Air Ambulance attends an accident scene, then one can generally be sure that it is a serious case. What is also disturbing is the group of around twenty bikers with whom it is said the accident victim was racing did not stop to help; they continued riding around pulling wheelies whilst two witnesses have stated that one rider in particular used a hand held video camera to film the accident scene and the emergency workers trying to save the man’s life. So much for comradeship. If they keep this up, they may end up becoming a self-solving problem. Somehow I doubt this – there will always be young thugs with more testosterone than brains to take the place of the dead ones. What I really fail to understand is why the bikers are obsessed with wheelies – they seem to spend as much time as they are physically able to on their back wheel. Why? What is the point? It would be just as effective and considerably cheaper to have “I am a complete pillock” tattooed across each of their foreheads. Bike Life TV UK don’t just ride around intimidating other road users and pedestrians, I understand that some of their members are involved in other types of crime. I have heard it said (but not confirmed) that some gang members move drugs around Thamesmead and Plumstead using junior gang members as couriers. Body building and Mixed Martial Arts are also popular with gang members – I have also heard to date unsubstantiated rumours that they have a trade in illegal anabolic steroids. This might well explain the extremely violent nature and short tempers of Bike Life TV UK members – who may well be suffering from “Roid Rage”. Watch the BBC documentary and make up your own mind. Whilst attempts are made in various Bike Life TV UK online videos to digitally obscure their vehicle number plates, as I have written before, there are many occasions where the number plates can be clearly read (of course, this assumes that the bikes in question are legally registered, and not on false plates, or stolen, both of which are strong possibilities). The group are also aware of Police surveillance on them – their website even has a news story which reads “Brimsdown Feds filming riders - to all uk bikelife  riders .looks like the police are filming  the riders mostly on the crossers . then putting names to the faces the paying you a visit at a later time so just  be careful  and be aware that you being filmed . keep stuntin uk bikelife.” Apart from the dreadful English and punctuation, and quite why they refer to the Police as “the Feds”, the picture is one of  a group who are deliberately going out of the way to break multiple laws. Personally I am not saying all that I could on the subject, due to an ongoing case that I currently am unable to go into details of for legal reasons. Suffice to say that I have a very personal reason to see the end of the illegal biker culture in the area. A few readers will know precisely to what I am alluding, the rest will have to wait until certain events have finally played out.

MP for Dartford Gareth Johnson has called for the government to withhold payment to Sanef, the company that operate the Dart Charge system. In an interview in the News Shopper, Johnson said “Since the Dart Charge system was introduced it has been woefully inadequate. I have had hundreds of people contact me who are deeply frustrated with the system. I have already called on the Department of Transport to withhold payments to Sanef, the company which operates Dart Charge, and I urge them again to do so. I don't want to see any tolls on the crossing let alone a toll system that doesn’t work correctly. Motorists need to be able to trust the system and yet that is not currently the case." The number of complaints about poor service, incorrect charging and fines being sent to people who had actually not used the bridge or tunnel has increased markedly. These were initially explained as “teething troubles”. I am also aware that a considerable number of "ghost journeys" have been reported - where a vehicle is charged for travelling over the crossing, when it was in fact not in the area at the time. There is already a serious problem around the country with false, stolen or cloned vehicle number plates in use by crooks trying to avoid both toll charges and fines for other traffic offences. I know for a fact that in the local area vehicles are illegally on the roads with suspect plates - and the Police are actively investigating those involved; from my understanding, the kind of person who fits false registration plates to a vehicle is the sort of person who is very likely to be involved with other kinds of criminality as well. This week a woman was left furious and upset with the failures of Dart Charge staff - after she received council tax, driving licence and V5 documents of another person in the post. Highways England has put the mistake down to “human error” in what has been confirmed the first case of its kind since the installation of the electronic system in November 2014. contacted the owner of these key personal documents on August 2 to explain she had received them and he in turn is believed to have launched action against the Dartford Crossing. To make matters worse Mrs Carroll (the woman concerned) now fears she could become the victim of fraud as she had initially been told her details had been sent out as well. On top of all this, the Dart Charge system has problems differentiating between "0" and "O", and there have been multiple instances of the wrong person being sent a fine notice. One commenter on the story on the Kent Messenger website wrote:- "My Dad (who lives in Yorkshire and who has never been anywhere near Dartford) just had a penalty notice through. He drives a Volvo V70 yet the car in the photo was a Renault! He rang up to complain but they said he would have to appeal against it! What a waste of time and money!" It is apparent that the Dart Charge system is deeply flawed, and the public are rapidly losing faith in it. Have you had problems with the system, or do you find it more convenient than the old system with cash handling? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week features the aforementioned Moat Housing Association apartment block fire, which was filmed by a local resident on his mobile phone - so the technical quality is not so great. It does give a very good idea of just how serious the blaze was, and how many emergency service vehicles and personnel were involved in fighting it. If you have any photographs or video of the fire, that you would like to share with others, then please get in contact with me by leaving a comment below, or by Emailing hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The suits.

If you dropped into Morrison's supermarket in Erith on Wednesday or Thursday last week, you would probably have seen something quite interesting. Thirty or so directors and senior managers from Morrison's headquarters in Bradford, West Yorkshire descended on the Erith store to meet with the local management team. Word from a couple of my inside sources is that Morrison's have been concentrating new developments and services in their Northern stores, and the ones in the South have been missing out. Morrison's started out, and for many years was a regional store chain only operating in the North of England. It would seem that mentality is still present in the board of Directors. A downturn in sales has been especially noted in the Southern stores, and they have finally realised that they have a country - wide operation that needs to be treated as such. The "suits" were on site at the Erith store on a fact finding mission. I understand that a partial refit and upgrade may well be on the cards in the not - too distant future.  More details will hopefully be soon to come. 

As regular Maggot Sandwich readers will be aware, I have been banging on about the forthcoming London Paramount Theme Park for the last couple of years. Until recently the local press have been noticeably quiet on the subject. This week the News Shopper finally featured the subject in a fairly lengthy article. The theme park will be the third largest in the World, covering an area in excess of 100 acres. Unlike the Disney theme parks, which concentrate on Disney only franchises, the Paramount park will feature franchises from outside the Paramount field, including but not limited to the BBC, Aardman Animations and the British Film Institute’s back catalogue.  Franchises including the likes of Mission Impossible, Sherlock, The Italian Job, Star Trek, Spooks, Dr Who, Wallace and Gromit, The Godfather, Shaun the Sheep and huge amount more. I understand that over seventy five percent of the rides will be indoors, as the operators know how unreliable British weather can be – this was a mistake made by Disney when they opened Disneyland Paris – they merely built a copy of their Florida theme park in mainland France, and most of the rides were in the open, which meant empty rides when it rained.  The Paramount park will have 1,500 seat theatre for ‘West End quality shows’, exhibition, conference and gig space, 5,000 hotel rooms, a cinema and nightclubs, restaurants and bars and a giant water park. As I have previously featured, the park will have a massive economic and social impact on the entire South East region.  The developers confidently expect that the park would attract around 10 million visitors in the first year and around 15 million a year by the fifth, when there’s more on offer. By way of comparison, Thorpe Park pulls in about 2.5million visitors a year.  Paramount will also be open 365 days a year. The park will also offer a lot of well-paying permanent jobs – several sets of figures have been bandied about over the last couple of years, but at least twenty thousand full time permanent roles will be created. It won’t just be people wearing furry animal suits either – the park will need electricians, cleaners, maintenance people, accountants and administrators. It will in essence be a new town in itself, and it is anticipated that many of the park workers will live in the forthcoming Ebbsfleet Garden City. Whilst the plans for the Paramount London theme park have not yet been signed off, my sources tell me that it is going to be a formality – the level of unemployment in Kent is above the national average in many areas, and a prime wealth and job creating enterprise of this nature will get the nod from the Government. Time will no doubt tell.

I had quite an unexpected response to my article about curry houses that I published last week; I must admit that I did not think the piece would provoke the level of interest that it has. Several regular readers were curious as to how I acquired my knowledge of Indian restaurants. Well that is actually very simple. For several years I was a reviewer for The Good Curry Guide, and regularly wrote articles for the (now discontinued) Curry Club magazine. You can see a reproduction of a couple of reviews above that I had published almost exactly twenty years ago – a fact that becomes clear when you see the price of the dishes I reviewed! £2.95 for Chicken Vindaloo is something you won’t see nowadays. I would anonymously visit curry houses and review them as a normal customer – the only restaurant that ever found out that I was a curry house critic was Sweet and Spicy in Brick Lane, where I was a regular. They saw my glowing review, photocopied and enlarged it, and posted it in their front window, next to their “Time Out” best cheap eats award. The owner Omar Bhutt, came over to my table one day and asked me outright if the review had been written by me. I could not lie, and I admitted it. From that day onwards, I always got free extras like a couple of samosas or a gratis cup of tea, which was very welcome, as my visits were at lunchtime. The restaurant was a victim to the bout of gentrification that hit Brick Lane a couple of years ago, and it is now a fried chicken outlet; a sad end to one of the earliest Indian restaurants in Brick Lane – it opened in 1969, and was the only place in London that served curry for breakfast – it was an East End legend. You can read more about the place by clicking here. The Curry Club magazine ceased publication some years ago, and I very rarely eat out nowadays, so my hobby of curry critic is now no more. One of the few times I will visit a curry house is after the annual visit to the Bexley Beer Festival in Old Bexley, which coincidentally is scheduled for next weekend:-

Readers should be worried about their personal information that is being stored and accessed by the National Health Service; a recent independent report states that healthcare providers, including the NHS are likely to still be using Windows XP – an operating system that has been unsupported since the middle of 2014. Researchers from security consultancy Duo found that healthcare devices were significantly more out of date and less secure than ones from finance, after comparing its healthcare customers' devices to its finance customers' equipment. Healthcare has a four times greater density of Windows XP computers compared to finance. Windows XP has been unsupported by Microsoft since 2014 and unsupported OSes do not receive any software patches or updates, making them an easy target for attackers. The risk is far from theoretical. For example, earlier this year Melbourne Health’s networks were infected with malware after an attack compromised the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s pathology department, which was running Windows XP. The Qbot malware linked to the infection is capable of stealing passwords and logging keystrokes. A significant minority (three per cent) of Duo’s installed base is stuck on Windows XP, which compares to one per cent of users across Duo’s entire client base. Across that customer base, finance has 50 per cent more instances of computers running on the Windows 10 operating system than healthcare. Twice as many healthcare endpoints have Flash installed and three times as many healthcare customers have Java installed on their devices, again putting them at greater risk of vulnerabilities and exploitation, as both Java and Flash are relatively easy to find security vulnerabilities in – and are often the first point a hacker will try and exploit. A separate study from IBM last week warned that crooks were increasingly targeting healthcare concerns rather than banks partly because systems were more weakly defended. Stolen healthcare info contains personal data that is readily marketed through underground forums because it offers the collateral to carry out identity fraud and other scams – a classic case of “low hanging fruit”. In a similar vein, the susceptibility of bank cash machines to malicious exploitation of ATMs in particular is due to the widespread use of outdated and insecure software, mistakes in network configuration, and a lack of physical security for critical components of ATMs. For many years, the biggest threat to the customers and owners of ATMs were skimmers – special devices attached to an ATM in order to steal PINs and data on bank card magnetic stripes. However, as malicious techniques have evolved, ATMs have been exposed to a greater range of dangers. In 2014, IT security specialist Kaspersky Lab researchers discovered Tyupkin – one of the first widely known examples of malware for ATMs – and in 2015, they uncovered the Carbanak gang, which among other things was capable of jackpotting (completely emptying of cash) ATMs through compromised banking infrastructures. Both examples of attack were possible due to the exploitation of several common weaknesses in ATM technology and in the infrastructure that supports them. In an effort to put together a more complete picture, Kaspersky Lab security penetration testing specialists looked at software and physical security weaknesses that leave cash machines open to looting. Malware attacks against ATMs are possible due to two main security shortcomings: 1) ATMs are essentially PCs running very old versions of operating systems, such as Windows XP. 2) In the vast majority of cases, the special software that allows the ATM's PC to interact with banking infrastructure and hardware units, processing cash and credit cards, is based on the XFS standard. This is a rather old and insecure technology specification, originally created in order to standardize ATM software so that it can work on any equipment, regardless of manufacturer. The XFS specification requires no authorisation for the commands it processes, meaning that any app installed or launched on the ATM can issue commands to any other ATM hardware unit, including the card reader and cash dispenser. That means if malware successfully infects an ATM, it inherits almost unlimited control capabilities. It can turn the PIN pad and card reader into a 'native' skimmer or just give away all the money stored in the ATM, upon a command from a hacker," the Kaspersky Lab research team warns. Physical security is, if anything, even weaker. The lack of physical security for the ATMs themselves makes criminal hacking possible without any recourse to malware needed. ATMs are often constructed and installed in a way that means a third party can easily gain access to the PC inside the cash machine, or to the network cable connecting the machine to the internet. By gaining even partial physical access to an ATM, criminals can potentially install a specially programmed microcomputer (a so-called black box), which will give attackers remote access to the ATM. Reconnecting the ATM to a rogue processing centre is also possible. Criminals are able to exploit insecurities in the network communication between the ATM and the banking infrastructure thanks in part to a lack of secondary controls, such as VPNs and authentication. The results of the security research show that even though vendors are now trying to develop ATMs with strong security features, many banks are still using old insecure models.  This makes them unprepared for criminals actively challenging the security of these devices. This is today's reality that causes banks and their customers huge financial losses. It would seem that cyber-criminals are not just interested in cyber-attacks against internet banking – they are increasingly turning their hands toward direct attacks. They see the value in exploiting ATM vulnerabilities because a direct attack against such devices significantly shortens their route to real money. You can be certain that any losses experienced by the banks will trickle down to customers in the form of higher interest rates and increased service charges, so it is most timely to find this to be of serious concern.

Since I covered the story of the huge fire at the Europa Industrial Estate in the early 1980’s, I have had some fascinating feedback from readers. Local Historian Ken Chamberlain sent me the aerial photograph that you can see above – click on it for a larger view. It shows the devastation left once the fire burned itself out. I am guessing that the photo may well have been commissioned on behalf of the loss adjusters working for the insurance company that insured the warehouses. The site is so large that an aerial photo would be the only way to really assess the extent of the damage. Nowadays it could be done far more quickly and cheaply by an aerial drone, but back in the day it would have had to be done by a light plane. Maggot Sandwich reader and retired firefighter Alan Magin was one of the team who tackled the blaze. He recalls:- "My recollection was that we made up the attendance from Greenwich, as we had the 100' turntable ladders. It was impossible trying to put it out, as the corrugated metal roof covered the combustible materials. I remember a plastics factory was also involved, melting its produce into the drains, so they needed replacing in the rebuild. What was handy though was the floating pontoon at the Erith Deep Water site. It was a case of relay pumping, from an appliance on the pontoon, as in effect we always had water! A senior officers decision no doubt, a good one if you ask me. Rather than use fresh water from the hydrants. I think the damping down operation lasted a week. It was interesting to hear you say the fire started in a paper warehouse with perhaps reeled paper? for newsprint maybe? If these reels got anywhere near damp they started to expand/unwind creating heat, hence the spontaneous combustion.  I attended a slightly larger fire at one of Mr Murdoch's warehouses in Grove St, Deptford, that one was started deliberately. I think he might have upset a few people!  Incidentally, I was shot up again on our 100' turntable ladder, (I must have been a glutton for punishment) only to be told by the operator to come down immediately. After my descent (walking down) the operator in his excitement had forgotten to put out the manual jacks to stabilise the appliance!!! I still think what might have happened if he had tried to manoeuvre the ladder? I might not have been here writing to you!"

It is that time of year again; the Friends of Riverside Gardens Erith (FORGE) are working in partnership with the environmental charity Thames 21 and volunteer groups including the Army Cadets to carry out their annual river cleanup on Sunday the 8th May. Volunteers are invited to join the work - protective clothing will be provided, and you get a free lunch. I will be going along to provide encouragement and to take some photos for future publication. Do come along to help clear the shopping trollies and other detritus out of the river.

At work, I, like many unfortunate people get quite a large number of unsolicited sales calls. The company switchboard are pretty good at filtering them out, but nevertheless a fair number do manage to get through. My normal technique is just to slam the phone down immediately. I was looking around online for a possible better solution when I came across this:- "I get 20 sales calls a day at least, as our organization is relatively large. All of them are unsolicited, and they use shady tactics to make it past the receptionist. So yesterday, in the middle of a team meeting, an emergency call came through the IT support hotline, interrupting our meeting. One of our help desk guys picks up and it's a sales guy claiming that he had just been chatting with me, the IT Director, and wanted to be transferred through so he could "finish the conversation." This was obviously untrue, as I had just arrived in the office, and I don't take sales calls. The help desk guy asked if I wanted him passed through to my voicemail, and I said: "I'd prefer that you transfer them straight to hell instead. In fact, we should have a special queue called Hell, playing the most obnoxious music over and over again." The guys start joking: "It could be playing Barney." "It could be playing 'The Song that Never Ends'." "It could be playing a detuned or desynchronized version of a Smash Mouth song." Our seasoned help desk veteran says: "I have just the thing!" and plays the most awful song I've heard in my life. Everything in the department stops, and then everyone busts out laughing. We are actually a well-oiled IT team – we've worked together for years. My background is in film soundtracks and audio production, and my senior network admin's is in broadcast radio audio engineering. We edited and snipped the audio, pitched shifted a few things, and generally set out to make the worst recording ever. Once finished, we uploaded it to the phone server and created the queue to repeat eternally. We assigned it extension number 666. Once in the queue, any button you press once in this queue restarts the recording. Our new department policy is: when sales people call they are to be transferred straight to hell". You can hear the wait music and message from hell by clicking here. Make sure you have your headphone / speaker volume turned down! You have been warned. 

You may in the past recall me bemoaning the audio quality of DAB radio broadcasts in the UK - due mainly to the fact that they DAB transmission standard employed in the UK is for the most part archaic. A DAB audio signal is encoded in MP2 (the ancestor to today’s MP3 format). The newer and more efficient DAB+ audio signal is encoded in aacPlus (strictly, aacPlus HE v2). Your iPod / iPhone uses AAC as standard; aacPlus uses a number of clever techniques to make it more efficient, so audio sounds better at lower bitrates. Roughly, 48kbps DAB+ sounds the same as a 128kbps DAB signal. A DAB+ audio signal also includes slightly better error correction, which might mean a reduction in 'bubbling mud' distortion when the signal drops, or other problems in poor reception areas. Apart from that, there are no differences. DAB+ and DAB use the same transmitters, same multiplexing equipment, and so on, and DAB and DAB+ signals can happily live on the same DAB multiplex. A DAB+ radio will also happily decode DAB signals as well (although a DAB radio won’t decode DAB+). Many DAB radios on sale today will cope with DAB+ automatically, or will prompt you with instructions on how to upgrade (which could be as easy as typing a code in, or downloading some new firmware). Any radio with a Digital Radio tickmark will cope with DAB+. DAB+ is now the standard way to launch new DAB services, and is in use in, among other places, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, and many more. The main benefit is that you can get many more channels onto a typical DAB multiplex. The UK has no plans to move from DAB to DAB+. While DAB+ services are now appearing in the UK, there are no plans to switch the majority of radio broadcasting over to DAB+: not yet, anyway. There have been a lot of DAB sets sold in the UK. DAB sets are in over half of all households here, and generally we don’t replace radios as fast as any other entertainment equipment (like a TV, a set-top box, or a mobile phone). Given this, it is unlikely that the UK will be switching to DAB+ any time soon, and there are no plans to make that change. DAB+ doesn’t automatically mean better audio in comparison to DAB Some of the main proponents of DAB+ in this country want it because they think it’ll result in better-sounding audio. It probably will not; The main benefits to radio listeners from DAB+ will be additional choice, not enhanced sound quality. (That said, DAB+ normally means stereo is available at bitrates formerly only used for mono, so there is that.) Because the UK was an early adopter of DAB, we have been stuck with what is now a mostly out of date transmission infrastructure. No wonder take - up of DAB is far below the expectations of OFCOM. 

As you may have read in the London Evening Standard and elsewhere, there are plans to open a new terminal for cruise liners at Enderby's Wharf in Greenwich. Up to fifty passenger liners will sail past Erith on their way up the River Thames to Greenwich every year once the new terminal is opened. It will be a real treat for the ship spotters that you see on Erith Pier from time to time. What it will not be a treat for is the residents of the area surrounding Enderby Wharf. The cruise liners will need to run their auxiliary generators to generate power whilst docked, as the development plans don't include clean shoreside mains power in their scope. This week A powerful committee of MPs stepped into a row over plans to let cruise ships spew diesel fumes day and night in the heart of London. The cross-party group of MPs ruled: “Planning permissions for new shipping facilities must require appropriate mitigation measures from developers. This should include, where practicable, a requirement to provide infrastructure to supply electricity to ships at berth.” Whether this will in any way influence the developers is currently uncertain. Providing clean, shoreside power would be an expensive option, but to my mind is the only way forward. Air pollution on the Greenwich peninsula is already running at unacceptable levels, and cruise liners running on auxiliary generators would only make things far worse.  You can watch a BBC London news report on the situation below. Feel free to leave a comment, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.