The "Funky Clock" scam.

The photo above shows the Cross Keys Centre as it looked on Friday lunchtime. The new sign lettering was being fixed to the frontage of the magnificent, sympathetically restored Victorian building. When I took the shot, the final "S" had yet to be fixed in place on the fascia - the worker installing the lettering had gone off for his lunch; now the sign is totally complete, and looking good. Parts of the building are already in use as office and meeting room space, both for the owners, Anglo - American management consultancy The Aleff Group, and for small local companies that need a certain amount of office and touch - down space. As previously mentioned, I have been an advisor to The Aleff Group for a couple of years now, and it is really gratifying to see the former run - down and very scruffy pub take on a new lease of life as a business, social and community centre for the area. I was there for a meeting with some business associates who are creating a new start - up company. Suffice to say that's all I can say on the subject for now, but in the months that come there will be some very interesting, creative and involving news to report. Watch this space. Whilst I was in the Cross Keys Centre, I was called out of the meeting room I was in, with a cryptic message "There's someone you might like to meet". Who should the person be than the power behind food delivery service Got Breakfast, local businesswoman Bukky Alabi. Although we have corresponded at some length, it was the first time that we had actually met face to face! The Cross Keys Centre is already fulfilling its objectives of becoming a hub where local small businesses and social groups can meet to exchange ideas, network and socialise. 

At this time of year, so many people seem to carry around a bottle of water; when the weather is hot, this seems like a sensible move. What I find very hard to understand is that rather than carrying an individual bottle containing up to half a litre, I see many people carrying 1.5 or even two litre bottles of water. Are they really planning on drinking that much? What will happen when they need to use the loo, and as we know, the number of public toilets in the UK has been cut back to almost nothing. Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to do more to save Britain's dwindling number of public lavatories. The Prime Minister said he would examine the case for lifting thousands of pounds of taxes from them every year to try to save them from closure. The search for public toilets in towns and cities has become more and more desperate in recent years because the number of lavatories has fallen markedly. Campaigners say that many have had to be closed because of councils have to pay onerous business rates on them. The British Toilet Association has estimated that 40 per cent of local authority run public conveniences have disappeared in the last decade, taking the number down from 12,000 to 6,000, in part because councils have to pay business rates on them. The Daily Telegraph reported earlier in the week that Public toilets have traditionally been liable for business rates in the same way as non-domestic premises such as shops and offices, while churches and premises used to care for disabled people are exempt. Raymond Martin, managing director of The British Toilet Association, said: “This is a public facility. People have to go to the toilet. We have to do five things in life – we have to eat, sleep, breathe, drink and we have to go to the toilet. Failure to go to the toilet we get sick, we get disorientated, we have high blood pressure, we can have strokes – this is a health and wellbeing issue. It is about equality, social inclusion and bringing more older people into town. The reason that toilets are closing is councils do not get any financial support from government to do it, so they have to sit down and look at costs. I have calls coming into me from councils saying ‘how do we close down all our toilets’. Councils really want to provide these facilities, they really want to have them but commercially and economically they can't afford to do it. The fall in numbers of public lavatories meant more and more shop owners are complaining about people urinating in the street, and worse".

Once again this week, the News Shopper report on yet another incident involving Gravesend RNLI being called to an emergency on the River Thames at Erith. This time a person was found trying to enter the river at 2.30pm on the 31st July - I must admit that I was working from home on Friday, and i saw the Police helicopter flying along the river from the window of my home office. I did not immediately realise that it was a person in trouble. A person was found on the shore and taken into custody. We are now getting an average of one river related incident a week; I seriously think that we need a permanent RNLI presence in Erith - as I have written before, the former Port of London Authority hut directly adjacent to the Erith Jetty (as seen in the photo above - click for a larger view) would be an absolutely ideal base for the sub station - what do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. incidentally, if you check the photo of Erith Pier in the News Shopper piece, you will see that it is an ancient shot from back in around 1978, when the pier formed an integral part of Erith Deep Water Wharf. How they managed to dig up such an historic relic, I really don't know. I could have easily supplied them with an up to date shot of the excellent refurbished and very popular pier as it stands nowadays. 

Following on from my piece a couple of weeks ago, where I discussed the relatively low average house price in the London Borough of Bexley, I have come to the conclusion that averaging prices over the whole borough actually gives a very distorted picture. Houses in Bexleyheath and Sidcup (the “posh” Southern part of the borough) are pretty much in line with other parts of outer London – with the exception of certain parts of West London. The reason the average is brought down overall is that in the less wealthy Northern part of Bexley - Thamesmead East, Abbey Wood, Lower Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green - is very much cheaper that the rest of the borough. The News Shopper have been reporting that more than three quarters of London boroughs, 78.1 per cent, showed an increase in new properties with Bexley the highest at 30.6 per cent. As we know, the Northern part of the London Borough of Bexley has a high proportion of first time buyers – mainly as it is one of the very few areas where first – timers have a chance of getting a mortgage. Sadly, this is already changing, as greedy property developers are hoovering up places as they come onto the market; they are acutely aware that there is about to be a house – price boom, fed by the arrival of Crossrail to Abbey Wood, and the almost inevitability that it will be further extended to link up with the forthcoming Paramount London Theme Park on the Swanscombe Peninsular, which will feature Europe’s largest indoor water park, theatres, live music venues, attractions, cinemas, restaurants, event space and hotels. Allied to the project will be a training academy for the entertainment and hospitality sectors, a new country park, a large science and education visitor complex and the biggest performing arts centre in Europe.  The plans for the park received considerable backing from the British government when Paramount London became the first commercial venture to be awarded Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project status allowing the developers to bypass local planning requirements. The Secretary of State may make a decision on the park's planning application in autumn 2016 – though I seriously doubt any politician would contemplate putting a stop to the project, as it will involve at least 25,000 permanent full and part time jobs in an area which has exceptionally high regional unemployment. An area estimated to stretch between Dover and Greenwich will benefit from the jobs and money that the theme park will generate, and this is inevitably going to push up the local house prices, and the areas such as the North of the London Borough of Bexley are almost certain to be disproportionately affected. If you are contemplating purchasing a property in Erith or the surrounding towns, I would strongly advise you to do it as soon as possible, as prices are set to go through the roof.

The News Shopper is reporting an incident where a motorcyclist with a helmet – mounted camera caught a woman driving a car whilst not only sending a text from her mobile phone, but also eating a bowl of cereal! Personally I don't find this at all surprising; when walking around Erith on a daily basis I see drivers using mobile phones whilst on the move. Only on Tuesday afternoon did I see a man driving a seven and a half tonne box van around the roundabout at the end of James Watt Way, as he headed into Manor Road, and past the KFC drive through; he had his left hand on the wheel, and his right hand holding his mobile phone to his left ear. As he went round the roundabout, he momentarily lost control of the van as his grip in the steering wheel slipped. Fortunately he recovered quickly, but the incident could have easily escalated into something more serious – especially as there are two pedestrian crossings very nearby. What was even more disturbing was that the van was owned and operated by a very high profile local company, who almost certainly have policies in place to prohibit the use of mobile phones whilst driving – in accordance with the law. I will be keeping a lookout for such illegal activity in the future –  the law on the subject is widely flouted, yet it is also one of the most dangerous behaviour a driver can exhibit whilst behind the wheel. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The DAB debate which started a decade ago, and which I have covered in the past has been brought back to life by BBC Radio 4, with the results appearing to be somewhat familiar. Ten years ago listeners complained of poor reception on DAB, with either no audio, or audio sounding like it was being broadcast from under bubbling water, and BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme has sparked a debate resulting in listeners complaining of exactly the same thing today. On Monday morning, James Cridland and Laurence Harrison appeared on the Today Programme to defend DAB, and talk about the possible ‘end of FM’. Both provided facts and figures about DAB listening and a multi-platform world, but listeners reacted by complaining of the lack of reception which still blights many areas in the UK. The problem is down to a number of factors; the DAB standard used in the UK is the oldest and most basic type, which has been superseded; newer DAB+ which is currently either being rolled out, or already in use in much of mainland Europe uses a far newer and more sophisticated codec, which enables better sound quality at lower bitrates – meaning even if the signal is poor, you have a better chance of actually hearing something intelligible. The other side of the coin is that the FM broadcast band in the UK has been incredibly successful, and stations such as BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 3 have extremely high sound quality when listened to with a decent receiver – and the signal coverage is generally far more complete than DAB. To be honest, DAB has several advantages, but in my opinion these are outweighed by the disadvantages. DAB coverage is not the only issue; sound quality is poorer (don’t let the “Digital” tag fool you – a low bit rate DAB signal sounds far worse than an equivalent analogue FM signal). As I have mentioned before – analogue radio signals exhibit a phenomenon known as “Graceful Degradation” - a form of fault tolerance – as the signal strength at the receiver reduces, on AM the audio from the speaker gets quieter, and on FM the amount of hiss increases. Eventually the signal will get so poor that no audio is intelligible at all, but for quite a long time the listener can “get by” even though the sound is less than perfect. With DAB and other methods of digital sound transmission the degradation is somewhat different. As the signal level drops, the receiver will start to “burble” as if the audio is being under water; there will be sudden silences, a few farts and blips, then nothing. There is no period where the listener is able to make out the audio as the signal drops – it is “all or nothing”.

Southeastern rail bosses have taken a bit of a slippering recently; A public meeting was recently organised in Sidcup for local commuters and other train users to attend and give feedback to the managers of the rail company; I understand that it was what the armed forces refer to as “a meeting without coffee”. The meeting was chaired by Old Bexley and Sidcup MP James Brokenshire. One of the most common complaints about the Southeastern service is that trains are comprised of too few carriages – especially in busy times of the day. Apparently Southeastern don't have any more carriages to enable them to run longer trains, even though they extended many platforms on the North Kent line before the Olympics, to allow twelve carriage trains to run on the line. The only problem back then was that trains could not stop at Woolwich Dockyard station, as the station platform has tunnels at both ends, which only permit ten carriage trains to stop, meaning that the first and last carriage on the train would be left in the tunnel when the train stopped – a similar situation to the DLR station Cutty Sark for Greenwich, where passengers have to move to the middle of the train to get off. The way the travel planners worked things during the Olympics and Paralympics was they just closed Woolwich Dockyard station for the duration of both competitions – ostensibly to prevent visitors “getting confused and alighting at the wrong station” – this had a side benefit that Olympic visitors were somewhat shielded from seeing what a terrible dump much of the area around Woolwich Dockyard station is. The upside was that they ran twelve car trains for the duration of the sporting festival, but reverted to the shorter trains with a maximum of ten carriages directly thereafter.

I have been contacted by a couple of long – time readers who had some questions and concerns about a couple of websites that they had encountered; knowing my background in I.T, and my special interest in online security, they asked if I could investigate. They had rightly become suspicious of a website which claimed that one could legally purchase a brand new iPhone 6 for the price of £1. The website advertising this has links from the tabloid newspaper website The Daily Star, and several other reputable (!) locations. When one followed the link, you were presented with what appeared at first glance to be a page from the BBC News website. It included a story about how people in the UK could get a brand new iPhone 6 for £1. Upon reading the story, alarm bells started to ring; the writing style was nothing like BBC News standard, and there was a problem with the links on the page – they all led to the same website – this is a common trick carried out by scammers – create a fake “honey trap” site to redirect web traffic to another website. The so called "BBC" site was nothing but a fake. The second site is called “Funky Clock” which runs “special offers” amongst “skill and speed” competitions, where participants purchase credits to use to play games, the winner of which supposedly wins an iPhone 6. When you sign up for the “free” service, you are prompted to enter your bank details “for verification purposes”. What is only displayed in microscopic text is that the “free” period only lasts for three days, and that after that Funky Clock will debit your bank account by £74 a month, from now until the end of time. No cheap iPhones, no deals – the whole thing is a massive scam. It would appear that many Internet Service Providers, notably including Virgin have been duped into forwarding “Genuine offer” messages from Funky Clock to their subscribers, thus giving a veneer of apparent respectability to the confidence trick. This is a classic case of “if it seems too good to be true, it generally is”. Be warned – treat anything that says they are giving away high value items for next to nothing as a con until it can be verifiably proved otherwise (a very fat chance indeed). Unfortunately the criminals will continue such scams for as long as there are vulnerable people to fall prey to them. You have been warned.

I make no secret that I am a big fan of Google; they have turned online search into a verb, they are that good at what they do that to perform a web search has for many become “to Google”. Many of their products such as GMail and Google Docs are excellent and widely used, but they have one product, which many people – myself included, actively dislike and avoid. Google+ was intended to be a direct competitor for social networks like Facebook, but it has never gained the popularity or traction with Google users – and nowadays Facebook is a verb as well. I predicted around a year ago that Google would pull the plug on Google+, and it would seem that this has now begun. Earlier this week, the company announced its most drastic step for breaking up Google+. Google has announced more sweeping changes for Google+ over the next few months as it restructures network into two distinctly separate products: streams and photos. Previously, many tasks within Google products (such as, say, commenting on a YouTube video) required a Google+ profile, but that won't be the case in the future. Forcing Google users to sign up for a Google+ account in order to the use some of the company's other products and services was a clear bid to generate interest in its social network, but it backfired with many users. Google+ claimed 300 million monthly active users in late 2013, although Stone Temple Consulting, a third-party digital marketing agency, pegged that figure at a far lower 111 million this past April. For many users,  the biggest issue with Google's social network is that it just wasn't social enough -- the layout of the site wasn't as inviting or friendly as Facebook's traditional layout has been and we still haven't seen any indication that Google really gets how the social web works – something that Facebook seem to have got right, despite their own illogical and inconsistent user interface – which users don't seem to mind. The move means users will soon be able to use their standard Google account to share content, communicate with contacts, create a YouTube channel, and so on. Unlike your public Google+ profile, your Google account is not searchable or follow able. If you already created a Google+ profile (read: Google conned you into doing it) but don't plan to use Google+, the company says it will “offer better options for managing and removing” your public profile. The changes are meant to strike a balance between the select few who actually like using Google+ and everyone else whom Google forced to sign up for its social network. I predict that Google will keep Google+ for another year or so, then quietly retire it as an irrelevance. What do you think? Do you like Google+ Let me know – Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The controversy over Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond may now have finally been put to bed, now that the announcement that their new car show will be hosted on Amazon Prime. Having said that, as I mentioned a while back, there are a number of excellent car shows broadcast on YouTube. One of them, by a chap called Harry Metcalfe is a real find. Harry is thoughtful and quietly spoken, but really knows what he is talking about; he is the former editor of the car magazine Evo, and a consultant to the Jaguar Range Rover group. In the video below, he drives an immaculate 1980 vintage Jaguar XJS V12 over a thousand miles from the UK to Monaco. Harry is either in possession of an incredible insight into the mechanical reliability of the thirty five year old grand tourer, or he has amazing faith in the build quality of the old Jag, built during their ownership by British Leyland, a company not exactly famous for the reliability, or indeed mechanical build quality of their cars. Watch and enjoy the latest episode of "Harry's Garage".

The 10th Bexley CAMRA Beer Festival.

The photos above were taken by Maggot Sandwich reader and prolific local musician, Ian "The rEV" Doherty. We met at the 10th annual Bexley Beer Festival, held at the Old Darfordians sports club in Bexley Village. The event also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Bexley branch of CAMRA, which was formed on the 21st July 1975 at the (then) Blue Anchor pub in Bridgen Road. Many of the founders are still members all these years along. I have been fortunate to attend every Bexley Beer Festival since it started back in 2005 at the Sidcup Sports Club; the Sidcup venue was lovely – a really classy location. The only problems were that it was a very long way from the centre of Sidcup, and very poorly supported by public transport. It was a very long walk from the bus stop to the venue, and cabs in the area were not very reliable in my experience. Added to this, after the first few festivals, the operators of the Sidcup club decided that they did not want festival visitors using the excellent club toilets, and instead Bexley CAMRA had to spend money hiring a load of Portaloos – which if you have every tried using one in a pitch black car park, is absolutely no cause for joy, and a very easy way to end up with wet feet. A couple of years ago the committee made the decision to relocate to a venue that was more central to the Borough, and which also had excellent public transport links. The new venue at the Old Dartfordians club is outstanding – inside loos, a large club house and a giant marquee at the rear, where the beer festival actually takes place. The weather this year was better than expected, and the rain held off, but once the sun went down the temperature outside plummeted and the wind rose. Most festival goers headed inside, either to the marquee or the club house itself. I think last year we were spoiled with stunning, tropical weather, but this year we were back to bog standard British fare instead. Still, it is not that many years since we had almost hurricane force winds and rain that was almost horizontal because of it, so I suppose we cannot complain too much. Erith’s own Bexley Brewery featured strongly in the event, which saw all of their casks run dry very early on the Friday; in fact by the end of the Friday session, there were only a handful of casks with any beer remaining at all – the Saturday session looked like it was going to be pretty short indeed. The event was very well attended as always, though I did not manage to see Cliff Murphy of the Bexley Brewery in person. The festival is a well-managed and run event that is a credit to those behind it. Now the countdown begins to the 2016 festival!

Wednesday evening saw a large delegation from the Save Belvedere Splash Park group visit Bexley Council Offices in an attempt to persuade the majority Conservative councillors to preserve what has become an invaluable community asset, not just to Upper Belvedere, but to the whole area. Many families with small children relay on it in the summer months. You can read a very detailed and insightful report of the events that took place on Wednesday by Malcolm Knight of the Bexley is Bonkers Blog. 

The photo above shows the block of flats and retail units that is located opposite Erith Health Centre. I have heard very good things about the quality of the flats - in fact some time back I visited one of them and found it to be lovely, with a great view out over the River Thames. Not so good things can be said about the retail units at the ground floor level of the block, unfortunately - they have stood empty ever since the block was built. My understanding is that a couple of businesses have shown interest in moving into the units, but various impediments have stopped them. Originally one of the units closest to Morrison's was under consideration by a company wanting to set up a children's soft play facility with a ball pit and climbing frame. I am sure that this would have gone down well with the many local families with small children. The cost of the lease proved to be too much, and the people pulled out - although on a happier note, I understand that the same company is moving into the site of the old Blockbuster video store diagonally opposite soon. The other two large retail units were under serious consideration by a Nando's franchise, which would have created a number of full - time and part time jobs. The problem was that the retail units have not got fume extraction or electrical power at present, and fitting this essential equipment would have cost small fortune. The Nando's franchise company negotiated with Bexley Council to get a council tax holiday to put towards the cost of the work, but the council rejected it (as with anything they do, the bottom line of the spreadsheet overrules any and every other consideration). Consequently we don't have a Nando's in Erith, and several people don't have a much needed job. Hopefully as the local economy slowly recovers, some organisation with deeper pockets will be able to turn the empty retail units into a productive business. There is a rumour going around Erith that a Subway franchise owner is interested in taking the White Hart / Potion bar and converting what was the ground floor bar into a Subway fast food outlet. I can find no evidence to support this, and there has been nothing to indicate a food use for the former pub and wine bar that has come to my notice. The two planning applications that have been submitted have been far more concerned with the potential for a residential conversion of the upper floors of the locally listed building. If a Subway outlet was to take over the former bar area of the building, it would be a very expensive concern, as not only would a replica of the original Victorian frontage have to be installed, as I demonstrated last week, along with a copy of the architect’s drawings, but a brand new kitchen and restaurant interior would need to be installed, along with proper fume extraction and ventilation equipment. Conservatively any investor would be looking to spend something in the region of a quarter of a million pounds before the doors on the outlet would even be ready to open, and to be honest, I just don’t see this going to happen. The chance of making back the investment, and getting the operation into a decent profit is just too small – any canny business person would realise that less risky investment opportunities exist elsewhere. I feel that the Subway rumour is probably little more than wishful thinking, and it is unlikely to amount to anything – as much as I would like it to be true. I would be happy to be proved wrong. if you have any information on this, or any other stories you feel would be of local interest, please feel free to drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com in complete confidence.

I took the photo above the Thursday before last, whilst I stood talking to Dr. Julian Hilton of the Aleff Group on the rear patio of the Cross Keys Centre. The view out over the River Thames from the former pub, and now business and community centre is stunning. Whilst we were chatting, I saw the ship in the photo above slowing cruising down river - it is the M.V Bert Prior, which has been trading on the Thames since she was built back in 1961; she's a small (175 ton) bulk carrier specialising in the transportation of sand and gravel for use in construction. She looks pretty much unchanged over the decades, although I do suspect that her radar was probably added quite some time after she was originally commissioned. People tend to forget that Erith is a maritime town with a long and (mostly) proud history of marine trade and exploration. It is certainly the only place in the London Borough of Bexley where you can gain access to the River Thames via both Erith Pier and the jealously defended Erith Riverside Gardens, which certain developers would dearly love to build on, which won't happen if many concerned locals have anything to do with it.

You may recall that last week after my article on Clickbait websites, I wrote that I would be revisiting the subject with some more details. Clickbait websites are those which you find featured on the web page footers of some reputable websites. They tend to have titles such as “Tiny trick kills erectile dysfunction” or “Steroid alternative putting gyms out of business” – you know the kind of thing – a strap line featuring some kind of statement, often linked to “miraculous” weight loss or some other far – fetched health benefit that encourages the reader to click on the link to read more on the subject. As I said last week, these invariably link to websites chock full of flash adverts for unlicensed, illegal and potentially harmful diet supplements, slimming pills and all sorts of nastiness. One other tactic the Clickbait producers rely on is pandering for people looking for a way to make a quick buck, unaware that “if it looks too good to be true, it usually is”.  As you will see from the screen capture above, the site promises great financial wealth if the reader follows certain steps – the graphic even encourages this; it shows a wild – haired man standing by some shelves holding gold bars – with the inference that he obviously knows how to make money. You may well have seen the graphic yourself. All however, is not what it seems. The man in the photo is not actually some financial wizard. In reality his name is Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff CBE CChem FRS FRSC FIChemE, who is the Research Professor in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. The photo with the gold is actually a screen capture from a YouTube video the professor made on the element Gold, as part of his online video series on the Periodic Table of Elements – a very easy to understand and entertaining series of educational videos he has presented, which are widely watched on YouTube. I somehow doubt the professor is even aware that his likeness is being used to promote a Clickbait site and dodgy financial advice. It happens that the professor has a unique look, and I follow his educational videos on YouTube, and recognised him straight away. The best way to discourage clickbait websites is to not click on them. They are parasites and offer nothing for the user except stress and loss of cash –  and possibly also your identity. The problem of people being fooled into buying unregulated and often fake medicines online – often via Clickbait websites has been unfortunately thrown into sharp relief this week;  a young lady named Eloise Aimee Parry aged 21, from Shrewsbury, took the “Miracle Fat Burner” diet tablets which are believed to contain the highly toxic industrial chemical dinitrophenol, also known as DNP. Shortly after taking the tablets, Eloise started to feel unwell.  She drove herself to Royal Shrewsbury hospital, where she explained to doctors what she had taken. At this point she was still fully conscious, and she still seemed to be OK. All that changed when doctors carried out a toxicology report that revealed how dire her situation was.  “The drug was in her system, there was no antidote, two tablets was a lethal dose – and she had taken eight",  Her mother Fiona Parry said in a tribute. “As Eloise deteriorated, the staff in Accident and Emergency did all they could to stabilise her.  As the drug kicked in and started to make her metabolism soar, they attempted to cool her down, but they were fighting an uphill battle. She was literally burning up from within. When she stopped breathing, they put her on a ventilator and carried on fighting to save her. When her hearted stopped they could not revive her. She had crashed. She had taken so much DNP that the consequences were inevitable. Eloise Parry died the same day. West Mercia Police are currently investigating the source of the lethal, so called “diet” pills. It is highly likely that they will have come  from somewhere with little or no regulation, such as the Philippines, where many of the shady criminal outfits tend to base themselves. Needless to say one should never under any circumstances buy any form of medication online – the risks are just too great; you don’t know if what you receive (if anything) will actually contain the active ingredient of the medicine – or indeed what the other components of the medication actually are. On top of this, you lack the safety of a consultation with a Pharmacist to ensure you are getting what is safe and effective for your medical condition.  In extreme cases like the one above, buying online medication can prove fatal.

I have written before as to how back in 2012 I purchased a Samsung ES 8000 smart television, and how unimpressed I was with the whole smart TV experience – the interface is slow and clunky, and the applications less than inspiring. I must admit that I don't use any of the smart TV functionality at all – it might as well be just a dumb screen (albeit with stunningly good picture quality). It turns out that owners of anything other than the very latest technology may well be in for a bit of a surprise. Google are shutting down an older version of the YouTube app built in to Smart televisions and other multimedia devices. According to a revised product support page, the YouTube apps built into certain devices manufactured in 2012 or earlier will soon stop functioning, beginning this week. The cut off will apparently happen regardless of whether the manufacturers advertised their devices as supporting YouTube at the time customers bought them. Google, characteristically, has tried to cast the end of service in a positive light, describing it as an "upgrade." "As we upgrade the YouTube Data API to bring more features, we'll begin shutting down the old version on April 20, 2015," Google's post explains. "We will continue to focus our efforts on improving our official YouTube app for TV which is available on most 2013 and newer Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, game consoles and streaming devices." The devices that will be locked out of the streaming service include pre-2013 TVs and Blu-Ray players by Panasonic and Sony. But a surprising number of other, even "smarter" devices will no longer work, either, including many from Apple. Any device not running iOS 7 or above won't support the new API (Application Programming Interface) – meaning the iPhone 3GS and earlier, the fourth-generation iPod Touch and earlier, the first-generation iPad, and the second-generation Apple TV are all shut out. People also have to realise that their fancy sets, however expensive, may actually have a shorter working life than their picture elements suggest, and that the services that make them "smart" may disappear long before the screens themselves burn out, as vendors stop supporting the installed applications whilst the hardware still has life in it.

The News Shopper have featured the story that the long – awaited new Micro Pub The Broken Drum has now opened in Blackfen. I have featured the ale house a while back; I understand that there have been a number of legal and building related issues which needed to be overcome, which led to much of the delay in the place opening . South East London and Kent have been very much at the forefront of the micro pub phenomenon. The Broken Drum is the third micro pub in the London Borough of Bexley – the first two were the Door Hinge in Welling, followed by the Penny Farthing in Crayford. The name of the broken Drum comes from the phenomenally successful “Discworld” novels by the late and much missed Sir Terry Pratchett. It was the name of a popular pub in the city of Ankh Morpork. There is a rather cunning twist to this; the Broken Drum is to be visited by a jolly nice chap by the name of Richard Reeve, who aims to cycle around Britain, visiting all one hundred micropubs to raise money for research into a cure for  Alzheimer’s Disease. Here is how Richard describes his aims:- “My quest for 2015 is to cycle to all 100 micro pubs in Great Britain! I'll be raising money for the Alzheimer’s Society. To make a donation to Alzheimer’s Society, please visit my fundraising page at uk.virginmoneygiving.com/RichardReeveCycling. What is a Micropub? The Micropub Association website describes a micropub as "a small freehouse which listens to its customers, mainly serves cask ales, promotes conversation, shuns all forms of electronic entertainment and dabbles in traditional pub snacks". Notably micro pubs do not serve any form of lager.  As of 1/1/2015 there were exactly 100 micropubs on the association's website. From Kent to Devon to Swansea to Berwick-upon-Tweed. My task is to visit them all!" The poignant side to this excellent venture is that Sir Terry Pratchett suffered from Early Onset Alzheimer’s for the last years of his life, so it will be doubly fitting that Richard should plan to visit. What is also interesting is what congenial and friendly places micro pubs are; at the time of writing , I understand that there has never been a recorded incident where Police have been called to a micro pub – which I think says something about both the clientele and the kind of places that micro pubs are. No lager = no louts.

There are times when the News Shopper leads in highlighting important local issues, and other times when they unfortunately lag well behind events; this week that have shown the latter behaviour. You may recall that back on the 11th January I wrote a blog post describing a group of criminals illegally riding a variety of motor bikes and scooters around parts of Lower Belvedere. They knew what they were doing was illegal, as they had uploaded a series of videos onto YouTube, and had made a crude attempt to digitally obscure the number plates of a couple of the bikes that actually had registration plates. I subsequently passed the information onto the local Police. Now the News Shopper is reporting the same kind of thing that is happening in Lower Belvedere is also widespread in Thamesmead – to the extent that crooks are coming from other parts of the country specifically to carry out traffic offences in the area. You can read their report on the worrying matter here. It seems that the local area is, of the report is to be believed, becoming the recipient of “yob tourism” – with undesirables apparently travelling from as far away as Manchester and Scotland to illegally ride off – road bikes with no registration plates, insurance or MOT. There are a number of groups engaging in this activity, and a large number of riders. The new Thamesmead anti – gang Police team are aware of the problem, and I understand that work is being done, though I don't know of the specifics (and for obvious reasons would not publish here – as it is just possible that one or two of the thugs can read). We have a similar, but thankfully smaller problem in and around Erith, with a number of illegal bikes being ridden along the pavements of Manor Road and onto the Slade Green Marshes, where they have caused damage to the unique, protected local ecosystem, ripping up the foot – traveller only pathways and causing erosion and damage to the bulrushes. It would seem that some kind of compromise needs to be achieved;  I cannot believe that all of the bikers who currently ride in an irresponsible and illegal manner are hardened crooks – perhaps if a legal off – road bike course was set up on a piece of waste land, a club could be established to permit riders to have a good time in a controlled and safe manner? What do you think? The news that thefts of motorbikes and scooters have doubled in the London Borough of Bexley over the last year may quite possibly be linked to the previously mentioned problems with illegal bikers in general; one of my local contacts who is in a position to know about such things told me recently that Police are investigating a gang who are stealing motorbikes from Barnehurst and Northumberland Heath and then take them to Erith and Slade Green to be broken up and sold as parts, or cobbled together to form bikes with a new identity. I suspect that at least some of the illegal, unlicensed and uninsured bikes that the criminal bike gangs use may well come from this source – in fact they may be one and the same – something for the authorities to determine. Whatever the specifics, it is clear that there is a rising problem with bike related crime in the area; it must be very difficult for the vast majority of law abiding motorbike owners – they must be constantly worried that their pride and joy may be threatened by organised thieves. Some years ago a friend of mine, who at the time was living in a quiet road on the Crayford / Dartford borders; he owned an immaculate Harley – Davidson motorbike, which was stored in his garage when not in use. Not only was the garage securely locked, but the bike was additionally chained to bolts cemented into the garage floor. Despite these precautions, thieves broke in and used bolt cutters to free the bike in order to steal it; he never saw it again. Not long ago I, along with many others saw a couple of kids aged not more than fourteen or fifteen who were racing a very high powered sports / racing bike around Erith Town Centre, along the High Street, and eventually into Manor Road, where they headed at very high speed towards Slade Green. Needless to say not only were they a danger to members of the public, but they were in great danger themselves – neither wore a helmet or protective leathers, and  hoodie, facial bandanna and sweat pants don't exactly provide much protection if you come off at sixty miles per hour. Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Much has been written in the popular press about the end of Top Gear - the most popular factual television programme in the world. I am not intending to add to that body of work, as I feel that enough has been said already; instead I am featuring a video presented by a thoroughly nice chap called Harry Metcalfe, a wealthy former magazine publisher and car enthusiast who now works as a consultant for Jaguar Landrover. He has started a YouTube channel reviewing all sorts of classic and modern cars of interest, some of which come from his extensive personal collection. Harry's Garage is one of my favourite YouTube channels; Harry is quietly spoken and thoughtful, and it is obvious that he has both a deep love and insight into the cars he features. A sample video is below. 

The 20th Earl of Suffolk.

The photo above shows the tug the GPS Avenger, moored on Erith Pier recently. It is a pity that few people outside of the town realise that Erith has a strong maritime heritage, and close links with both the River Thames, the North Sea, and the English Channel. It is the really unique selling point of Erith in the London Borough of Bexley, being the only town in the borough with access to the River Thames. 

I have concerns that Erith is soon quite possibly to be swamped by a flood of dumped shopping trolleys. As has been widely reported in the local press, Morrison’s supermarkets are in the process of removing the coin locks on their fleet of shopping trolleys, as according to their customer feedback, people don't like having to temporarily employ a pound coin to free up a trolley. This is all fair and good if the theft and / or dumping of trolleys was to be discouraged in some other manner, such as having an electronic perimeter past which the trolley wheels lock – as is often used by Waitrose. Unfortunately Morrison’s have no such plans – they are effectively allowing free and unrestricted access to their trolleys on the sites where the locks have already been removed. Thus far the Erith branch has escaped this fate, though I have no information for how longer this situation will continue. One can imagine what would happen if people have free reign with them – Erith will be covered by abandoned trolleys, and you can be certain that local scrotes will not only take them to throw in to the River Thames, but would also try flogging them off to scrap dealers. It has been reported by the News Shopper that a similar situation has arisen in Sidcup, where the pound locks were removed inJuly last year; now Sidcup residents are complaining about the number of trolleys which can be found abandoned all over Sidcup, and even further afield. Parked cars have been damaged by being hit by errant trolleys, and all sorts of disruption caused. I really don't want to see a similar situation in Erith. I definitely think the whole idea is a bad one; I understand that a basic shopping trolley costs something in the order of £70 for the supermarket to purchase; even if Morrison’s have a dedicated team of trolley – wranglers, there will inevitably still be a large number that permanently go missing.   If anyone works for Morrison’s, and can give any inside information as to the plans for the Erith store, please drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com – any information will be treated in the strictest confidence.

Some readers may be aware that I am a radio amateur (often referred to as a Radio Ham) I hold an Advanced class licence, with the international callsign M1CXN. To be honest I am currently not the most active ham, only operating on the 2 metre VHF radio band. The next stage of the refurbishment of Pewty Acres is to completely re - engineer the shortwave radio antenna that until last June stretched down my garden. The old antenna was a relatively modest contraption that was only used to receive radio signals from around the world on Shortwave. The new antenna will be somewhat more sturdy, and capable of transmitting signals of up to 400 Watts in power - for which I am legally licenced and qualified to do. A great deal of the work to make radio communication possible was down to one visionary man. Guglielmo Marconi was a 22-year-old technology genius, who, stung by the lack of interest in his work in his homeland, moved to a new country to develop his ideas. Whilst born and educated in Italy, he only really made a name for himself when he emigrated to the UK. In a single year, this individual extended the performance of a key, then brand new technology by a factor of more than 20. It sounds like an outlandish tale even by modern Silicon Valley standards, but by the end of 1901, had pushed the range of wireless communications from just over 80 miles (128km) to 2,000 (3,220km). Marconi’s breakthrough turned conventions about the then-new wireless technology on its head, earning him a joint Nobel Prize for Physics nine years later. If one technology dominated the early 20th century, it was wireless – thanks largely to Marconi. Before TV, Marconi's work established wireless as the world’s first mass medium, trouncing the long established electric telegraph and replacing print in many areas. He facilitated the spread of communications, entertainment, politics and propaganda around the globe in a fast-modernising world of motor-driven cars, and propeller-powered aircraft. Long-range wireless transmissions made the oceans a safer place, too, allowing ships to stay in touch with the land long after they had journeyed over the horizon. Marconi’s work also allowed the development of the SOS signal – and his company received the first one in 1910. Contrary to popular opinion, Marconi did not invent radio – that was a chap called Heinrich Hertz, a German physicist. Marconi did massively increase the transmission range, efficiency and sensitivity of radio designs. Marconi was fortunate in that he came from a wealthy family who not only owned a lot of land, but were also part of the Jameson whisky distilling dynasty. Marconi set up a wireless transmitting and receiving station in Poldhu, South East Cornwall – a location picked as it was very close to the Atlantic, and the ships that traversed it – at that  time Marconi believed that the main use of wireless would be for ship to ship, and ship to shore communications. In June 1901, Poldhu communicated with a station at Crookhaven in County Cork, 225 miles away. In September, high winds blew down the masts, but that wasn’t going to stop Marconi making history. With a temporary pair of 160-foot masts he set off for Newfoundland in Canada to receive transmission of the first transatlantic wireless signal – from those masts. On the 9th  December, he used cable telegraphy to ask his team to start sending signals. On the 12th December 1901, he heard their reply: an "SSS" in Morse. Wireless radio communications had crossed the Atlantic, and further tests found that Poldhu’s range could exceed 2,000 miles. January 1903 saw the first transmission from the US, from American President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII. This may have been the first example of poorly timed international calls due to time differences; Poldhu received the message at night, after the post office in the nearby village of Mullion had closed, so it didn’t get through to the king until the next morning. How times change.

Transport for London (TfL) have announced something that I predicted some time ago; a river crossing to join the London Borough of Bexley with the Borough of Havering by means of a crossing between Lower Belvedere and Rainham. The News Shopper have reported that a new crossing at Belvedere would mean an additional 70,000 businesses and 165,000 jobs within an average commuting time of North Bexley – though how this figure is arrived at is somewhat unclear. Back in April last year I came up with the following possible solution to the current problem of cross – river communication:- My suggestion, provisionally entitled “The Arthur Pewty Memorial Tunnel” would stretch between the Ferry Lane roundabout, South of Rainham town centre and the A2016 Bronze Age Way / Picardy Manor Way roundabout in Lower Belvedere. In effect, this would connect the A13 and Rainham in South Essex with the A2 and M25 via Bronze Age Way, and the South Circular via the A2016 Eastern Way towards Woolwich. It could also have the added bonus of connecting Rainham and Belvedere railway stations via a regular bus service through the tunnel. My vision would be of a structure very similar in size and scope to the existing Medway Tunnel which links Strood with Chatham in Kent. The Thames tunnel would use the same kind of immersed tube construction that the Medway Tunnel does – that is, sections of prefabricated tunnel sections are sunk into the river, joined together, then the water is pumped out. This relatively new method of construction is well suited to shallow and medium depths of water, and creates tunnels which are both very strong and relatively cheap to construct. Unlike the Medway Tunnel, I would hope that the Lower Thames tunnel would permit the use of bicycles via a raised cycle / walkway kept physically separate from the vehicular traffic. As previously indicated, by the time any tunnel of this nature had been constructed (which I understand normally needs an Act of Parliament) the level of harmful pollutants emitted by vehicles will be far lower than the already pretty low levels now, and many of the cars may well be zero emission via either conventional batteries, Hydrogen fuel cells or possibly even LENR (Low Energy Nuclear Reaction) power, if one is somewhat on the optimistic side. More on LENR power next week - it is not the pig in a poke that many once thought. This would not be the only new link needed across the Thames South of Tower Bridge; I suspect that the proposed Gallions Reach crossing will probably go ahead in some form or another, despite the traffic having to run through a housing estate and close by a large residential nursing home on the South side of the river.  I would not hold your breath about a quick build for the proposed new bridge – even if funding is sourced, and planning procedures go smoothly, it is unlikely that any new bridge or tunnel would be completed before 2025. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Millers Pie and Mash shop in Albert Road, Upper Belvedere (don't call it "Nuxley Village" - there is no such place - that name was invented by Estate Agents who did not live in the area, and had no knowledge of the local history when they began selling properties in the vicinity). The shop has just been awarded a five star rating on the Scores on the Doors website, for the second time around. This is excellent news indeed; I know of several local people who use the shop regularly, and report that the quality of the traditional London fare it serves is very high indeed. It is good to see an independent local business that is doing everything it can to maintain a very high quality product and service.

Southeastern Railways are making some changes to the services running from North Kent into Cannon Street – one of the busiest lines in the South East of London, and one of the prime commuter routes. It has to be said that for once they have listened to the opinions of rail travellers. Early morning and evening services are being increased, with additional carriage capacity – though the once promised twelve carriage trains will still not be making an appearance – due to the length restrictions imposed on any train due to the layout of Woolwich Dockyard station – which has a tunnel at either end, preventing any train over ten carriages stopping at the station. I am led to understand that the type of train used by Southeastern has a door control system that is “all open / all closed” rather than a selective system whereby the driver can prevent certain doors from opening, as is the case with the Docklands Light Railway. At stations such as Cutty Sark for Greenwich, the DLR train front most and rear most doors stay shut, as those parts of the trains are still in the tunnel – passengers wishing to get off have to move to the central part of the train in order to disembark. Automated announcements are made on every trip, but it is not uncommon to see travellers wondering why the door in front of them won’t open. The same kind of approach cannot be undertaken on the overland trains, and the option of running twelve car trains, but just not have them stop at Woolwich Dockyard station is also apparently not available – unlike during the 2012 Olympics (where many locals think that the real reason trains did not stop at Woolwich Dockyard was to prevent overseas tourists seeing what a dump the station and surrounding area was, and rather than invest some money in improving the environment local to the station, trains instead just whizzed through without stopping).

The campaign to save the much loved Belvedere Splash Park rumbles on; I have heard views from a number of different local sources, and it would appear that the park was not quite as dead in the water (to coin a pun) as some had feared, though the vote at the Council meeting on Thursday night to close the park for good may well change that. I am aware that Cory Environmental Ltd have offered a substantial sum of money towards the refurbishment of the Splash Park, but that the Council have said that it would not be sufficient to cover the costs. I find this strange – from what I have discovered, when the Council hired the original installation contractors, they did not carry out much in the way of due diligence. Normally when undertaking a substantial capital project of this nature, the project team would draw up a scope of works and terms of reference document, and send this out to five or six potential contractors. When those contractors had returned their responses, the three most suitable candidates would then be called in to conduct a presentation and questions and answer session with the project leaders. A final choice of contractor would then be made, and a contract signed. From what I have heard Bexley Council pretty much opened the yellow pages and stuck their finger on a name. When they subsequently wanted a quote for refurbishment of the nine year old Splash Park, they only went back to the original installer. This is really not the way to conduct a major public work, and it is no wonder that the figures being thrown about are somewhat on the high side. If no element of competitive tendering is employed, the contractor can pretty much charge as much as they think they can get away with. The other problem is that I have heard from an inside source that Cory Environmental are currently up for sale, and looking for a buyer. Any sale of the company could well result in changes to their corporate social responsibility policies, and could mean an end to funding for projects like the refurbishment of Belvedere Splash Park. Time will tell. This is all part of Bexley Council's campaign to sell off any and every open space in a desperate bid to raise cash. London Live have recently covered the story - you can see the video report here. Is the Belvedere Splash Park finally doomed, or will someone intervene at the last minute? I really cannot say. 

Another anniversary has come up this week; did you know that the humble wine box is fifty years old? The Australian invention, known over there as a “goon”, has been occupying wine drinkers fridges since it was first developed back in 1965. The wine box actually owes a lot to the space race and NASA.  The bladder that is located inside the cardboard outer box is made of a material called Mylar – or more correctly, Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate. This form of polymer was originally invented back in the mid 1950’s by American chemical giant DuPont, for use in early spacecraft. The inert, tough and flexible plastic has since found hundreds of uses in everything from drum skins, the magnetic media in recording tape and computer floppy disks to tiny flecks of it being added to nail varnish to make the varnish “sparkle”. It is a very versatile material that is tasteless and impervious to liquids and gases, thus making it an excellent choice of material to form the wine containing bladder that sits within the reinforcing cardboard box. The clever concept of the wine box is that the Mylar bladder collapses as wine is drained from it, so air does not seep into the container  - which would cause it to begin oxidising and would seriously shorten the shelf – life of the wine once it was opened. As it is, wine inside a wine box remains drinkable for around six weeks once the seal has been broken. Having said that, I don't know of anyone who has managed to make a wine box last anything like as long as that! At one time wine boxes were thought of as being suitable only for student parties and barbecues; nowadays the quality of wine found in boxes is far higher, and they have achieved greater social acceptability.

One building more than any other dominates the skyline of Erith, and that is the clock tower of Christ Church. Interestingly the spire was built quite a bit later than the main church building, and the spire celebrates 2015 as its centenary year. The bell ringing group from the church has sent me the following news:- The tower and spire were added to Christ Church Erith in 1914-15. Documents held in the Bexley Local Studies and Archives Centre provided the inspiration for this project. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled us to produce a series of displays on three floors including ground floor displays and CCTV links to the ringing chamber and bells. If you would like to see more of the building itself and look at our displays then please come along to Christ Church, Victoria Road, Erith to one of the tower open days on the following dates:-

March 22nd 2015 3-5pm
April 19th 2015 3-5pm
May 17th 2015 3-5pm
June 7th 2015 11.30am-12.30pm
June 21st 2015 3-5pm
July 5th 2015 11.30am-12.30pm
July 19th 2015 3-5pm
August 16th 2015 3-5pm
September 20th 2015 3-5pm

I was surprised to discover that the local area has a strong link with Charles Howard, the 20^th Earl of Suffolk. Charles Howard led what can only be described as a colourful and eventful life.  He was the son of Henry Howard, 19th Earl of Suffolk and his American wife, the former Margaret Leiter ("Daisy"), sister of Lady Curzon and daughter of the American businessman Levi Leiter. The 19th Earl was killed in World War I at the Battle of Istabulat, in Iraq. After leaving the Royal Naval College, Osborne at 15, he attended Radley College, but quit in 1923 to join the sailing ship the Mount Stewart as an apprentice officer. After his return from a round the world voyage, he was commissioned in the Scots Guards but was later asked to resign from his post by his superiors because of his "wild ways". In 1926 he returned to Australia; where he first worked as a junior cattle station operator, and later owned a large farm jointly with Captain McColm, who had been Captain of the Mount Stewart. The earl was a great animal lover, and unlike many of his class he hated hunting and shooting, and was a keen amateur naturalist. In 1934, he married Chicago-born ballet dancer  Mimi Forde-Pigott, with whom he had three children. The Earl enrolled at Edinburgh University, graduating three years later with a first-class honours degree in Chemistry and Pharmacology. In his early twenties, the Earl was made a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. The Nuffield Institute of Medical Research at Oxford University offered him a research post in the area of "explosives and poisons".  As Liaison Officer for the British Department of Scientific and Industrial Research during World War II and was instrumental in evacuating the French stock of heavy water and radioactive isotopes that had formed the French nuclear research programme, just ahead of the German invasion – he also managed to liberate over $10 Million worth of gem diamonds and 600 tons of high quality machine parts in the process. For this and other escapades, Herbert Morrison, the Minister of Supply, later described him as "one of the most remarkable young men employed by the Government on dangerous missions." Morrison told the House of Commons that "A considerable service has been rendered to the Allied cause by the safe arrival of this shipload of materials”. Following his return from France, the Earl worked for the Ministry of Supply as a Research Officer learning how to defuse bombs of new and unknown types.  The Earl served as part of an unexploded bomb detachment in London during the Blitz. The detachment consisted of himself, his secretary  Morden, and his chauffeur, Fred Hards. They called themselves "the Holy Trinity" and they became famed for their prowess in detecting and successfully tackling thirty-four unexploded bombs with "urbane and smiling efficiency." Morden stood by his side taking notes, as the Earl worked at defusing the bombs. On the 12^th May 1941 Charles Howard was working at a “bomb cemetery” on Erith Marshes. A “Bomb cemetery” was a place where bombs that had failed to explode, or bombs were transferred there after being temporarily made safe for transport, and then destroyed using controlled explosions. The Erith bomb cemetery was one of the largest in Greater London. The Earl was tasked with defusing a particularly difficult type of 250 Kg German bomb that had been dropped over six months earlier, and had been around for so long that the bomb cemetery staff had nicknamed it “Old Faithful”. The Earl attempted to defuse the bomb, but was killed along with his secretary Morden, and his chauffeur Fred  Hands, along with eleven others who were nearby when he tried to remove the fuse, as it had been fitted with a type of booby-trap called a Zeus 40. Sir Winston Churchill wrote of Charles Howard “One bomb disposal squad I remember which may be taken as symbolic of many others. It consisted of three people, the Earl of Suffolk, his lady private secretary and his chauffeur. They called themselves 'The Holy Trinity'. Their prowess and continued existence got around among all who knew and 34 unexploded bombs did they tackle with urbane and smiling efficiency, but the 35th claimed its forfeit. Up went the Earl of Suffolk in his Holy Trinity. But we may be sure that, as for Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, all the trumpets sounded for them on the other side”.  In 1973 the BBC produced a television play on the life and death of Charles Howard called “ The Dragon’s Opponent”. A memorial to the Earl can be seen in a dedicated stained glass window in St. John the Baptist church in Charlton. The 1979 ITV television series “Danger - UXB” which featured the fictional (but both historically and technically accurate) exploits of a wartime Royal Engineers bomb disposal team had an episode (“Cast iron Killer”) featuring a bomb fitted with a Zeus 40 anti-handling device just like the one that killed the Earl of Suffolk. I would strongly recommend that you watch the entire series of “Danger - UXB” (available on DVD from Amazon and other online retailers), as it makes very compelling viewing; despite the story being fictional, the methods used to defuse the bombs, and the situations the team find themselves in are accurate. The programme was titled and partly based on the memoirs of Major A. B. Hartley, M.B.E, RE, Unexploded Bomb - The Story of Bomb Disposal, with episodes written by John Hawkesworth and four screenwriters. The series was filmed in 1978 in and around the Clapham, Streatham and Tooting areas of South London.

For many years I have been a fan of BBC TV's "Top Gear" - I have found it to be highly entertaining and something that I would go out of my way to watch. The current series on BBC 2 on Sunday evenings is I have to admit starting to pall with me; the show is getting tired, and I feel that it would be a good idea to either give it a re - vamp, or end it entirely. I think one of the problems with TV shows like "Top Gear" is that in recent years the rise of amateur and professionally produced car shows online has really changed the game. An example is below. "Harry's Garage" is a car show hosted on YouTube that reviews both new and classic cars, most of which are owned by Harry, the eponymous millionaire car enthusiast who also presents each episode. Unlike Jeremy Clarkson, Harry is quietly spoken and somewhat thoughtful; his deep knowledge of the vehicles he reviews is evident, and he really makes for a likeable and engaging presenter. See what you think - in the video below, Harry does an in - depth review on his 1987 Ferrari Testarossa. Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Maggoty Man.

The photos above were taken on a very wet and windy Tuesday evening in the conservatory at the rear of the Royal Standard pub in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. The second public meeting of the Save Belvedere Splash Park campaign was held. Nearly thirty people crowded into the conservatory. The main business of the evening was to elect a committee to actually run the protest campaign. Not long after I arrived at the venue accompanied by my camera, a lady came up to me and asked “Are you the maggoty man?” which left me slightly nonplussed. I knew what she meant, and wondered if she had also got it mixed up with The Matt Smith version of The Doctor, who was occasionally referred to as “the raggedy man”. I confirmed I was that person, which seemed to please her. I have been giving some thought to the whole terminology of online journals, and what the names imply. Personally I am forming the opinion that the term “blogger” may no longer be appropriate for the likes of Malcolm Knight, Darryl Chamberlain,  and indeed myself. In my opinion, blogging seems to denote the occasional postings of missives in a casual and inconsistent manner – a quick whinge about something to get it off your chest and into the world, whether the world is interested or not. Long term, regular postings in a consistent format that involves a considerable investment of time and effort, as well as a degree of subject research and accountability to the readership would seem to me to be more than mere blogging. I would suggest that a more suitable term should be "community journalism". What do you think? Does it sound pompous and self-serving, or do I have a  point? I would solicit your opinions and suggestions. Answers on a postcard please, or better still, leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

As I have commented recently, it does seem that the actions of Bexley Council Environmental Health Department are having a very positive effect. The “Scores on the Doors” ratings of many local food outlets have been steadily improving over the last few months. It has just come to my attention that traditional London Pie and Mash shop – Miller’s in Albert Road, Upper Belvedere has been awarded a five out of five star rating for food hygiene and kitchen cleanliness. This is excellent news; I know several friends who eat there on occasion, and the reports have always been that the pie and mash sold is of exceptionally high quality. In this time of fried chicken and dodgy mass produced burgers it is good to see that certain traditions are not about to die off. One friend has two primary school age daughters – they prefer pie and mash to McDonald’s or Burger King, and I know that Miller’s is their destination of choice. On a less salubrious note, I am pleased to see that the application made by African restaurant K’s Spice in Pier Road, Erith to open from 9am until 1.30 am the next morning, seven days a week has been rejected by Bexley Council planning department. The restaurant is located under a row of low – rise flats, many of which are occupied by people with small children. The level of noise and disruption that such long opening hours would cause are simply not acceptable. As if this was not enough, even though many “Scores on the Doors” ratings in the area are improving, as already mentioned, the K’s Spice has consistently had an unacceptable one star out of five for the last three inspections. Personally I think that the place should be compulsorily closed down until such time as it was able to meet or exceed a three out of five star rating – the level that is generally accepted as the minimum acceptable score. What do you think? 

There is another tech birthday this week, but it is not thirty years old as so many seem to have been over this year. This piece of technology celebrates its tenth birthday – the Firefox web browser. If you have been around for a while, you will no doubt record the 1990’s when the web first started to make an appearance. I can recall the heady days of 1996 and browsing the infant web on a PC running Windows 95 and Internet Explorer 3 over a corporate leased line. Even then, it was not a pleasant experience. Private users who were fortunate to have  dial up internet access preferred the Netscape Navigator web browser, which offered a more complete, if somewhat slow and buggy experience. As has been well documented elsewhere, back at this time web browsers were sold in boxes at computer stores. Netscape Navigator was around £35 in PC World – at this time web download speeds were far too slow to download an application, which might be several hundred megabytes in size. Netscape Corporation made a fortune, and for a couple of years they utterly dominated the web browser market. Microsoft came late to the web, but when they did they were ruthless. Microsoft immediately broke the near Netscape monopoly by bundling their rival browser called Internet Explorer free with new Windows PC’s, and by giving away Internet Explorer CD’s on the front of popular computer magazines at the time. Overnight the Netscape market share plummeted, their market capitalisation crumbled, and the company was all but ruined. For the next roughly seven years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer had a virtual monopoly on the web browser market. By the time they had released version six, so confident that the opposition had been crushed that Microsoft publicly announced that they were not going to release a further version, as there was nothing left to do with the product Apple mac users were even further unsupported in that the Mac version of Internet Explorer was never developed past version 5. This stunning piece of arrogance soon came back to bite them squarely on the bottom. The Mozilla Firefox project was created by Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross as an experimental branch of the Mozilla browser – an early open source update of the by then abandoned Netscape Navigator software suite, which consisted of a web browser, an Email client, an Internet Relay Chat tool and a basic “what you see is what you get” web page authoring tool. Hyatt and Ross felt that the Mozilla browser was too large, complex and bloated – very few people really wanted or used anything except the web browser element of the suite; instead they decided to branch out on their own in order to create a much lighter, faster and more efficient stand – alone web browser. Initially this was called Phoenix, but this had to be changed as a company had already go the name registered. The change was then made to Firebird, but again copyright issues were raised. Finally the name became Firefox – named after a breed of Red Panda. Version 1.0 of Firefox was released on the 9^th November 2004. The rest as they say is history. I have a small involvement in the early days of Firefox – I was a volunteer tester – I would download the nightly builds for both Windows and Linux and see how long it took me to find the bugs – which I would then report to the development team. It was quite a big commitment, but the team in those days was only about 25 people in total, and the actual software development team less than half of that, so one soon got to recognise names. Since then, Firefox has been instrumental in removing the dominance of Microsoft – who soon realised that they could not ignore the browser market after all; nevertheless they steadily lost market share, not only to Firefox, but also to the excellent Google Chrome web browser, and to a much lesser extent the rather clunky Apple Safari browser, and the very idiosyncratic Opera web browser (yes, it is still going – just!) If Firefox have done anything, it is to democratise web surfing – they are also the only major web browser company whose products are not tied to a large company, and whose programming code is truly free and open source, Happy Birthday Firefox – you deserve it!

Some readers are surprised at the amount of time I spend working on each weekly update of the Maggot Sandwich; on average each update takes around ten hours of work to research, write, edit, create web links and metadata for. Much of the time is spent in research – I try to ensure that I report on facts, not suppositions, and bearing in mind I am both reporter and editor this can on occasions be extremely difficult. This week I have what would have been a couple of local scoops, but the Save Belvedere Splash Park team accidentally blew the stories before I had a chance to properly get the details. I had mentioned the stories to them in passing, and they unwittingly passed them on. Such is the nature of online media. I am constrained by only publishing once a week on a Sunday. Nevertheless I did uncover the following two news stories, one of which is solid fact, and the other at present is still a rumour that has yet to have been properly corroborated, but does come from a previously reliable anonymous source. The first, solidly confirmed story is that there are plans by giant brewing and hospitality company Marston’s to construct a large pub, restaurant and hotel on the North side of the Belvedere flyover at the junction of Picardy Manor Way and Eastern Way in Lower Belvedere. If approved, it could mean some much needed jobs for the area, as any such new operation will be rather labour intensive and will require a certain amount of staffing 24 hours a day. Marston’s are known for their quality real ale (they are the largest brewer of cask ales in the World), but they also run a very sizable estate of hotels and restaurants on top of the nearly two thousand pubs they operate around the country. Marston’s to my knowledge don't have any pubs in the local area; all I can find is one in the City of London (the Pitcher and Piano in Cornhill), and one in Braintree in Essex(Bailey’s Café Bar). Other than that there is nothing Marston’s – wise in the region, let alone the local area. The site, if it gets planning approval, will be very sensibly situated, close to the A2016 Eastern Way to Plumstead and Woolwich and the A 2016 Bronze Age Way to Erith, Crayford and Dartford, with its link to the M25 and the A2 / M2. I think the business planners at Marston’s have been one step ahead of almost everyone, and I can see the benefitting because of it. As I have covered recently, it is quite probable that a bridge or tunnel will be built at some point to link Lower Belvedere with Rainham in Essex; the proposed new hotel / restaurant and pub would be smack bang on the South side of any connection, and in a prime spot for business travellers needing a bed for the night. It is highly likely that any bridge or tunnel connection across the River Thames would require drastically improved local public transport, thus making the pub and restaurant accessible for any locals wanting to leave the car at home when they went out for a couple of pints, or a meal and a glass of wine. The fact that the newly built Belvedere Park residential estate is within a couple of minute leisurely walk would also be a great advantage. A new facility of this nature really has no local competition – the nearest rough analogue would to my mind be the Harvester outlets in Crayford and Dartford, though they are really too far away. The only place I can see that has anything to fear from a pub / restaurant combination is the Running Horses in Erith High Street. A few months ago when it had a previous health inspection, it only merited a woeful one out of five stars on the “Scores on the Doors “ rating system. Back in October it was re – inspected and I am pleased to say that it has seriously upped its’ game and now rates four out of five stars, an excellent improvement. The bottom line is that the pub does not attract anything like the number of customers it used to. Back in the late 1980’s the upstairs carvery was booked weeks in advance, and packed out every Saturday and Sunday. The food was plentiful, well cooked and reasonably priced; The Running Horses was synonymous with family lunches out, and for good reason indeed. Nowadays the reports of the food have been woeful – cold gristly meat, grey vegetables, congealed gravy and sullen service. As I have said before, I don't see the current owners have the financial clout and experience to pull what could be an excellent pub out of the mire. Currently it seems to be living a hand to mouth existence by supplying the lager needs of a handful of regulars who seem to spend much of their time in the smoking shelter outside of the front of the pub, come rain or shine. The Running Horses would seem to need a large injection of capital, both to upgrade the building and facilities, and also to publicise it to the larger area. I am pretty certain that it is not anything like an impossibility to return the hostelry to the glory days of the 1980’s, but in my opinion it requires new management and a pot of money. The only way I can realistically see this happening is if the owners of the Running Horses sell the pub to a pub management company like Spirit, who own brands like Chef and Brewer, John Barras and Taylor Walker. Alternatively I am sure that Wetherspoon’s would be more than interested in getting a foothold in Erith, as they have nothing in Belvedere, Erith, Crayford or Barnehurst, and their outlets in Bexleyheath are very busy. Personally I would rather see a regional brewer / pub owner such as Shepherd Neame or Fuller’s taking on the pub, as they both have excellent records of turning around failing pubs and moving them slightly upmarket with better quality food and drink. I am probably dreaming in vain; it is evident that Erith town centre really misses a quality pub, and there does not seem to be any likelihood of the Running Horses getting significantly better without third party intervention. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or drop me an Email to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The second piece of information is still classified as a rumour, as at the time of writing I have been unable to get any documentary proof, though I am still digging through various sources. The rumour does come from a previously impeccable source though, and I have no reason to doubt its veracity. I am told that the now long empty Potion building (formerly the White Hart pub shown in the photo above - click on the picture for a larger view) is being studied by Subway as a possible sandwich outlet / restaurant. This would be a logical move by the fast food retailer; Erith does not have any equivalent sandwich shop (Greggs is the nearest thing, I concede), and recently a large influx of potential new customers are present in the town – the students from the newly opened Bexley College Campus in Walnut Tree Road. They are already a noticeable presence in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, and have definitely increased the takings of many shops. If the rumour has substance (and I believe I may have found a smoking gun - a company called Malthouse Retail that operates a variety of fast food franchises from as far away as Cardiff to as near as Epping in Essex is recruiting shop staff locally). If this is indeed correct, them Malthouse Retail behind the Subway franchise will have an uphill battle on their hands. The White Hart building is in a poor state of repair, and the kitchens need to be completely stripped out and replaced; the structure also needs a totally new ventilation and fume extraction system (don't forget that all Subway outlets bake their own bread on the premises, and need ovens with suitable flues and smell filtering, all of which costs a lot of money).  I am unsure if any new owner would be legally obliged to undertake the remedial works mandated to the operators of Potion – who infamously ripped out the acid etched glass and green, salt glazed Erith Pattern tiles on the exterior of the old pub. Bearing in mind that the building sits in the middle of a conservation area, it may be a condition of trade that a facsimile frontage is installed. Having said that, I know the Council planning department backed away from that idea a while back. At present the whole thing is pure supposition, with only minimal evidence at present. I will publish more news as it comes to me.  I am always reliant on you the reader for my stories – even if you don't want a name check, any story you send can be published in anonymity if you so choose; alternatively I have regular guest writers, and if you have something that you feel would be of interest to people, get in contact with me and we can discuss it. I don't have many rules, but there are a few guidelines I request that guests adhere to – nothing very arduous, just common sense behaviour.

I took the above photo a while back in August when the rumour first surfaced that Electricity House was possibly going to the the subject of a redevelopment plan; thus far nothing has happened, and the story has gone cold. Nevertheless, the site is being allowed to fall slowly into rack and ruin, and no money has been invested in the building in a very long time indeed. It is only a matter of time before the property owner takes action. It would be great to see it undergoing a complete, but sympathetic restoration. Somehow I just don't see this actually happening. If any reader has heard any new stories or rumours about the future plans for Electricity House, please Email me and let me know - I rely on my informers.

Microsoft are pitching their forthcoming Windows 10 operating system heavily towards the education sector; they will be rolling out tools to enable remote administration of laptops running the new OS to make it more attractive to non – technical staff to administer. Meanwhile Google is making a dent on this lucrative market with Chromebooks. The internet giant has been promoting the use of the Linux based Chrome OS with specific tools for schools to manage the devices, their apps and users. Its Chromebooks for Education programme is helping schools deploy large numbers of devices with an easy management system. While it is possible to purchase a small Windows laptop for about the same price of a basic Chromebook, the associated management and support costs (not to mention the expense of a Windows licence for each user) are enormous in comparison. In addition,  Chromebooks are pre-loaded with apps such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, with similar functionality to Microsoft's Office suite. Schools can easily provision each Chromebook with specific educational apps, remotely wipe the entire device in seconds, and reuse the laptop for a new class without purchasing any more licenses. There is no manual setup for different users and the machines are administered throughout the school, no matter how many Chrome devices they have, or where they're being used. Google claims that there is no manual maintenance, security patching, or time-consuming support. Since Chromebooks are specifically designed to work online with cloud storage there is no risk that students could lose their work and applications. Each student receives an unique Google account and cloud drive where all documents, preferences, and apps are installed, allowing them to work on the school provided Chrome OS device or any other computer, tablet or smartphone able to run Google Drive. If a Chromebook is lost or compromised it can be wiped out remotely with the "power wash" feature. Despite this, the use of Chromebooks outside of the USA is still somewhat limited in schools; Apple have very cleverly marketed the iPad at the educational sector in the UK, and in many places it has now become the de facto standard. Apple has always been a strong player in the education market. While other PC vendors were mostly focused on the corporate and government sectors Apple was cultivating niche markets such as education, press and design. The effort is paying off, and Apple can claim leadership in the education market. Many schools offer “£10 a month” leasing schemes, which enable pupils to have a centrally managed iPad complete with technical support should it break, and full replacement insurance if it is lost or stolen for a relatively reasonable monthly fee. This generates a reliable monthly revenue stream for the specialist educational resellers who operate the schemes. Microsoft need to simplify their offering for education empowering schools and teachers to manage devices, licenses, and content easily – the tools within Windows 10 partly address this, but it may well be too little, too late. They also need to provide free development tools for educators so they can create unique content;  otherwise the current trend of schools moving to iPads and Chromebooks will continue and the professionals of tomorrow won't be used to Windows anymore. This more than any other single reason is why I feel that the once dominance Microsoft and Windows had on the PC is now coming to an end.

The ending video this week is from a relatively new YouTube channel called "Harry's Garage". It is put together by motoring journalist and former Evo Magazine publisher Harry Metcalfe. Harry is fabulously wealthy (but not in the Jay Leno league), and has a fantastic private collection of vehicles which he stores at his family pile in West Sussex. Unlike Top Gear or some of the other motoring channels on TV and online, Harry's presentation style is laid back and thoughtful - he obviously knows and cares a great deal for his vehicles. Many of the cars featured are exotic supercars from the 1980's to the present day, but Harry has a particular soft spot for his 1954 Series 1 Land Rover, which you can see in the video below. Please feel free to leave a comment or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.