At long last - four out of five.

The photo above shows the progress in the construction of the new Bexley College campus in Walnut Tree Road, Erith. The place is now certainly coming together rapidly; it is due to open to its first students in September. I am hoping to get a sneak preview of the interior in the not too distant future, when I hope to publish a Bexley College Maggot Sandwich special edition. Keep watching this space.

Readers may recall how I have been involved with fighting illegal fly tippers in and around Erith for some time. There have been occasions when I have felt like I was fighting a losing battle, but recently the tide appears to have turned against the illegal rubbish dumpers. The worst site for fly tipping has for years been the council recycling centre at the end of James Watt Way, round the back of Morrison’s. It is small, out of the way and out of view, yet readily accessible by car or tipper van, making it an ideal place for nefarious activities. In the past I have discovered dumped loads of old furniture, bed mattresses, fridge freezers, and most surreally a massive load of batched and bound used men’s underpants and several huge pallets of putrid, rotten bananas. As a result of this, Bexley Council Environmental Crimes Unit installed a CCTV camera on the site, complete with a large warning sign. Predictably the level of fly tipping dropped noticeably. I understand that several prosecutions are planned, though currently I am unable to say more at this point regarding the specifics. This got me thinking. Why do certain individuals fly tip in the first place? I think that there are several factors involved. Firstly I think there is a degree of ignorance – some of the fly tippers do not have English as a first language, and may assume that since there are recycling bins and hoppers, that anything can be deposited there. Of course this precludes those who tip anywhere at any time – there can be no excuse for that. Other tippers may be lazy and not bothered to go to the official council tip in Thames Road, Crayford. I think the biggest reason is down to cost. 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. 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.

Now that the light evenings are with us, an annual event takes place around Erith and Slade Green – something you can virtually set your watch to. The appearance of the illegal off – road bikers, who ride on the pavements, or pulling wheelies in the road, on their way to the Slade Green / Crayford Marshes. It seems to be a rite of passage that a certain subset of the local yobs come out pasty faced and blinking from their bedrooms and X-Boxes once the ambient air temperature rises above 20 degrees Celsius; they then dust down their unlicensed, uninsured and illegal two stroke trail bikes and proceed to annoy and endanger the local population with their activities. If this in itself was not so bad, the noise can be insufferable. Invariably the scrotes will remove part if not all of the exhaust system in the ill –founded belief that this will give their weedy bike engines a few extra horsepower. What actually happens is that the bike ends up sounding like an angry wasp trapped in a biscuit tin, causing sonic grief to those unfortunate to be in the vicinity. The police regularly chase these riders, and every so often a prosecution and subsequent judicial bike crushing will be the result.  The trouble then calms down for a while, before the whole sorry cycle begins again. The worst offenders really don’t care about bikes being crushed, as they have stolen them in the first place. I caught three under aged and scrawny chavs on a shared moped in Manor Road not too long ago; I managed to write down the number plate and report it to the police, only to subsequently discover that the bike had a false number plate on it. The whole problem waxes and wanes, but never really goes away. The only respite is when it rains – the scumbags hate wet weather, and I guess that return to their dank bedrooms and their video games consoles.

You may recall that back in January 2013 I reported on the Pizza Hut delivery outlet in Northumberland Heath that was closed by health inspectors due to the unbelievably filthy conditions that they found both in the kitchen and throughout the building. The situation was deemed so bad that the story made it into the national papers and really reflected badly on both the area, and the Pizza Hut brand in general.  The place was forced to close for a deep clean and partial rebuild. It then re – opened. I thought little more on the matter until back this January I received an anonymous Email from a reader which read: “I work in this "disgusting" pizza hut you mentioned and let me just say, you have mentioned the fact that "Apparently the place has received a deep clean and its’ hygiene standards are improving". The shop was recently given a new shop front to improve the customer perception of the shop but this was as far as improvements actually went. The general conditions within the shop is probably in my opinion worse than ever. In November 2011 most Pizza Hut delivery units were franchised off to private companies and this is when the trouble started. The company that runs this and many other stores in the surrounding area presented managers with such unreachable targets that they soon all left. This then left it open for the company to get in their own managers. Just before Christmas 2013 conditions within the shop were so bad I was having to work in pools of water leaking from various fridges walls and ceilings. Toilet facilities at one point were completely non-existent, the toilet was in fact broken and laying on its side exposing the sewage pipe where rats were seen and making the whole inside of the shop smell of raw sewage. Dates on ingredients are changed to extend the shelf life rather than discarding then like they should be. Things like the can opener, vegetable slicer and oven are no cleaner really now than they ever were. Finally, Just to say that if any of your readers think that eating here may make you sick, believe me, even I won't eat from here”. I reported this information to the local authorities, and also to the News Shopper and to be honest, I thought little more about it. Whilst carrying out my periodic checks on the “Scores on the Doors” website to see what hygiene grades local food outlets were being awarded, I noticed something which indicated that things have now finally changed much for the better. Earlier this week, the Scores on the Doors rating has been updated once more. I am more than happy to announce that the Pizza Hut Delivery outlet in Bexley Road, Northumberland Heath now has a revised rating of four our of five stars, so something must at long last be going right. Whether it has been pressure from Bexley Environmental Health, or a change in franchise ownership I cannot at this point determine. Either way, it is a piece of good news for the consumer at long last. Personally I would still not use the place, but that is my individual choice. Any opinions / reviews on the place would be more than welcome. If the place really has pulled its boots up, then the good news needs to be shared. 

According to a leaked document that I have been privy to, Erith and Thamesmead MP Teresa Pearce has been putting her boot in this week. She’s been giving very short shrift to Councillor Don Massey over the council’s decision to not take part in the Open House project -  as mentioned last week, every year, for one day only, each London borough opens up some buildings not normally open to the public to visit for free; it also drops entrance charges to buildings for which there would normally be an entrance fee. This year, on top of abolishing the Danson Festival, Bexley Council have decided to withdraw from the scheme, citing the need to save money. The irony is that the Open House scheme normally encourages around five thousand visitors from outside of the borough to visit, and although they don’t have to pay an entrance fee for places such as Danson House or Hall Place, they invariably spend money on food and memorabilia whilst they are visiting. The visits also have the less tangible benefit of raising the profile of the borough, which generally does not have much of a presence in the consciousness of people not resident in the area. The costs of operating the scheme are minimal, and it strikes me  that Don Massey and his cohorts are fully aware of this; I get the impression that they are not trying to save money – they are trying to be seen to be saving money, which is a far different thing. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Over the last couple of years, it seemed that wherever you went in South East London or North Kent, about every fifth vehicle on the road would be an open backed lorry from City Scrap. So ubiquitous was their fleet that I can recall on many occasions seeing four or five of their vans in convoy; they also habitually congregated around the Londis corner shop and convenience store in Manor Road, before returning to their depot on the Darent Industrial Park on the Slade Green Marshes. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that their vehicles were suddenly absent from our highways, and although I had heard vague rumours, I had nothing substantiated or verified to report. Now the News Shopper has published the story as to how a lengthy Police investigation into City Scrap has led to the arrest of the owners, the removal of their scrap trading licence and the forced permanent closure of the company. It turns out that the claims on the City Scrap website that their operators and drivers were fully CRB checked and with UK driving licences were only one of a mass of lies the company told.  It transpires that City Scrap were allegedly engaged in a large insurance scam involving around £30,000, along with another forty five other offences including:- perverting the course of justice, making a false statement to obtain insurance, and making a false statement to obtain a scrap metal licence. An illegal CS tear gas canister was also discovered during the Police raid, which was part of Operation Ferrous – a project to target, prosecute and jail bent scrap dealers and metal thieves, which I have detailed in the on the Maggot Sandwich back in December 2011. Bexley has been one of the London boroughs worst hit by metal theft and criminal scrap dealing, and it has been the heart of the London – wide Operation Ferrous. Metal theft costs the UK economy an estimated £700 million a year – enough to build and run two major teaching hospitals. The British Transport Police say that theft of power and signalling cables is second only to terrorist threat as their priority. Bexley is very hard hit by metal crime as the borough has a higher concentration of scrap yards than anywhere else in Greater London – which it has to be said are not all crooked, but substantial number have sailed rather closer to the legal wind than would be desirable. It would appear that although trade prices for non ferrous scrap (copper / brass / zinc / gunmetal / bronze) have dropped somewhat in the last year – mainly due to a drop in demand from China, prices are still pretty high, and there are enough crooked dealers prepared to break the laws concerning the ban on paying cash for scrap and keeping proper records to keep the illicit trade in pretty rude health. Hopefully the taking down of the largest scrap dealer in the region for multiple counts of illegal activity will send a message to others doing the same, though I am not holding my breath.

You may recall that recently I have written about the heavy engineering company Fraser and Chalmers that were based in Erith for many years. They made mining equipment, pumps, boilers and ore separation machines, many of which were exported to the gold and diamond mines in South Africa. The photo above was taken back in 1907, and shows the main foundry and many of the men that worked there - click on it for a larger version. Notice the lack of safety equipment, and the huge amount of manpower available - by World War 1 there were 4,000 employees. It was hot, backbreaking work, and the average labourer worked a 54 hour week - including Saturday mornings. This is one of the reasons that football matches traditionally start at 3pm; historically this was to allow the men to get home, have a wash and some lunch, before heading out to the game. 

Over the last few years there has been a resurgence of interest in real ale. When I first joined CAMRA, the popular image of a real ale drinker was a bearded bloke in a woolly jumper and open toed sandals, complete with darned socks. He would be listening to folk music and writing down each beer that he quaffed in his “ticker book”. Whilst there are a small minority of such individuals who usually only come out in public at Beer Festivals, the vast majority of real ale enthusiasts look just like everyone else. Indeed, if you take a stroll around somewhere like Hoxton, real ale is now seen to be cool and trendy, and being drunk by the Hipsters. Did you know that there are now more breweries in the United Kingdom than at any time it its history? Many small breweries are taking advantage of the resurgent interest in the product (ale is the oldest manufactured product known – it predates bread by several centuries). As I mentioned last week, a new brewery is opening in Erith in September, though preparations are already under way.  The Bexley Brewery will be the latest in a line of breweries in the borough. One reader with a very good memory corrected a statement I made last week, when I said that the last brewery to operate in the London Borough of Bexley was Reffells in Bexley Village. I was wrong, and to be honest I should have known better. The last brewery in the borough was the Fenman Brewery which was located at the rear of the Jolly Fenman pub in Blackfen Road, Sidcup. The micro brewery brewed beers for sale in the pub, and at events in the local area; it operated between 1984 and 1988, and I visited it on a number of occasions. I recall that there was a glass window at the back of the pub which looked into the brewery area so that you could see the brewery in action. Regular reader Martin reminded me of this when he wrote” The Fenman brewery at the Jolly Fenman Blackfen road was in operation from 1984 to 1988, up to 4 beers were brewed on the premises for sale in the pub. The beers also found their way into local south east London beer festival held at the old Greenwich town hall. From memory the Jolly Fenman was at that time part of Clifton Inns, itself part of Grand met. It produced 4 regular beers, Blackfen Bitter, Heath Special, Fenman Fortune and Dynamite which was sometimes branded as Exploder. There were probably others but that's what I remember at the moment, it was 30 years ago! It seems the idea was that all of the Clifton Inns would have their own brewery installed on the premises, rather like the Firkin pubs of David Bruce but plusher, this didn't happen only around 5 did. Probably the most well know of these was the Orange Brewery in Pimlico SW1, they were still brewing around 2001. There was also the Greyhound brewery in Streatham. My memory fails me on the others in the chain and there is very little on the internet about the chain. The plant at the Jolly Fenman was a 5 barrel one and after it stopped brewing was relocated to another Clifton inn, the Duke of Norfolk, Notting Hill around 1989.” Interesting recollections from Martin, who knows, we may even have visited the pub at the same time without knowing; I have to admit that had he not jogged my memory, I would have completely overlooked the Fenman Brewery. Hopefully the forthcoming Bexley Brewery will last far longer than the four years the Fenman was around. More on this soon.

Have you heard of a new condition called Nomophobia? It is defined as “ the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. The term, an abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone phobia", was coined during a 2010 study by the UK Post Office who commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organization to look at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users. The study found that nearly 53% of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage". The study found that about 58% of men and 47% of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9% feel stressed when their mobile phones are off. The study sampled 2,163 people. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason that they got anxious when they could not use their mobile phones. The study compared stress levels induced by the average case of nomophobia to be on-par with those of "wedding day jitters" and trips to the dentists.  Ten percent of those questioned said they needed to be contactable at all times because of work. It is, however, arguable that the word 'phobia' is misused and that in the majority of cases it is only a normal anxiety. More than one in two nomophobes never switch off their mobile phones. The study and subsequent coverage of the phobia resulted in two editorial columns authored by those who minimize their mobile phone use or choose not to own one at all, treating the condition with light undertones of or outright disbelief and amusement”. The sad fact is that many people feel that they cannot live a meaningful and fulfilling life without a mobile phone. When one thinks it is only really in the last twenty years or so that mobile phone has become widespread, and only the last ten or so years when they have become ubiquitous. How did people get on before then? Absolutely fine. In fact if anything people were better organised and disciplined – there was no phoning to say that you were running late for a meeting or a dinner date, you had to make it or face looking bad. Nowadays people can call ahead and warn their friends and colleagues, which to my mind rather encourages a less rigorous approach to timekeeping. On top of all this are the serious privacy issues. A lot of smart phone owners think that as long as they have GPS logging switched off, they cannot be traced; nothing could be further from the truth I am afraid. If you watch the short explanatory video below, all will become clear. Please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

A closed door to open house.

The photo above shows the view from Erith looking West towards Lower Belvedere. You can see the bulk freighter the M.V Arklow Viking unloading a cargo of vegetable seeds ready to be converted into vegetable oil or low fat spread at the ADM Oils factory, which is the largest producer of cooking oils in Europe, and a very significant local employer. Most locals (unless they work there) are unaware of the giant production facility, only wondering about it on the occasions its' giant fume filters fail and a disgusting smell fills the air. To ADM's credit, this is a pretty rare event nowadays, and generally they do contribute a great deal to the local economy. 

I had a rather surreal and mildly worrying experience whilst queuing to pay for some groceries in Morrison’s earlier this week. There was a chap in front of me, and a couple behind. It turned out that they knew each other, and started up a friendly conversation. The individual in front of me said “I did not know that you two knew each other” to which, one of the couple responded “oh that’s easy – we share the same probation officer”. I must admit that this caused me to inwardly wince, but it got worse. “How are the family”? The guy in front of me asked. “Oh, young Martin has got himself into trouble again. He’s on remand in Belmarsh – he murdered his girlfriend. He says she had a fit and died, but he’s always beaten up his birds”. I could not make it up. What was more astonishing was the casual and matter of fact way that it was said. Names have been changed for obvious reasons.

Bexley Council are once again doing all that they possibly can to court unpopularity. Not only have they permanently cancelled the annual Danson Festival, but now they have also decided to withdraw from the London Open House Programme. This programme opens up some buildings that are not normally open to the public, for them to view for free; it also means that for one day public buildings such as Danson House and Hall Place that have an entrance fee are opened for nothing. One of my most reliable confidential informants tells me that the reason for the decision is straightforward. The council have tacitly admitted that both Danson House and Hall Place are normally so expensive to get into that on previous open house days, over five hundred visitors have toured both venues when it was free. The council does not want to host open house events, as it reckons it loses money. They seem to be ignorant to the fact that most if not all of the visitors on the free day would not pay to visit either of the sites due to the exorbitant entrance fees. Bexley is only one of three London boroughs that is not taking part in London Open House scheme. It strikes me as mean spirited and lacking in any form of creative vision. What do you think? Submit a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com

I love Maplin electronics stores. I find it difficult to resist the temptation to pop in whenever I go past a shop. I invariably end up buying something too – even if it is only a small widget for a couple of quid. I have heard Maplin referred to as “a crèche for blokes”, and I have to say that I would not argue. Over the last year or so they have started selling 3D printers suitable for home and educational use. If you are not aware of what a 3D printer is, read on.  Unlike a conventional printer, which prints ink onto paper in two dimensions, a 3D printer uses a printing medium such as a coloured thermoplastic to slowly build up a solid object from tiny filaments which are extruded from a nozzle. The technical press have been very enthusiastic about 3D printing for a couple of years. Huge claims have been made as to what problems 3D printing can solve, and 3D printers are now cheap enough (entry level models are around a thousand pounds) that home users are now buying and using them. One area that 3D printing is well suited for is the production of small mechanical components, such as engine spares or plumbing parts. The problem with 3D printing is that it does not scale well. 3D printing speed is a cube function; a printer may be able to make a one inch cube in an hour. To make a cube that is in every way identical save that each cube face was two inches in size would take the same printer eight hours, and a four inch cube sixty four hours. Basically going from one inch in an hour to four inches in nearly three days is practically unworkable using current 3D printing technology. Unlike computers, where Moore’s Law dictates that computer processor power will double approximately every two years, the rate of 3D printer development is currently far slower. It is unlikely that 3D printing will become anything other than a novelty in anything other than very specialist sectors such as prototype engineering, where they have already proved to be invaluable. Unfortunately for general everyday use, 3D printing has yet to live up to the hype.

Above you can see a copy of the letter that has been delivered to all residents of Manor Road, concerning the complete closure to all through traffic for a period of ten weeks, whilst major re – engineering of the road is undertaken. It would appear that the council and engineering contractors have taken account of the large number of businesses that are located at the Eastern end of the road; fears that businesses would be unable to get their vehicles in and out would appear (at this point at least) to be unfounded. At no point is the entire road going to be closed as had been feared by many, as the closure is being broken down into a number of phases which will keep vehicular access open, albeit from a rather circuitous route.  Details on the letter – click for a larger view. You can also view more details on the Council's website by clicking here. How the whole project will work in reality is another question which only time will tell. Be assured I will be keeping a close eye on this story, and reporting accordingly.

Transport for London have taken a bit of a step backwards. Recently they have been running audio announcements, as well as a poster campaign the Underground, warning passengers to be careful of “card clash” when swiping in and out of the gate line barriers with an Oyster card. This is contrary to some of the statements made when Oyster was first rolled out, where TfL said that clashes between Oyster and other contactless card systems were simply not possible. I doubted this at the time, and my fears have proved to be grounded in reality.  The fact is that many people are getting penalty fares as they own more than one Oyster card, and keep them in the same wallet or purse – and they swipe the wallet or purse over the reader, rather than taking the specific card out. In these cases, one card gets debited on swipe in, and the other on swipe out – one could end up in a situation where one was penalised £8.50 for the card that swiped in but not out, and another £8.50 for the card that swiped out but not in. On top of this if one presents the wrong Oyster card when questioned by a revenue protection officer, you can be fined up to £80 for travelling without a ticket. This is all about to get even more complex, as Transport for London are heavily promoting “bonk n’ pay” –  the use of contactless bank debit cards to swipe into stations. They would rather passengers used their contactless debit cards, as it saves 2p per transaction in Oyster processing charges. Contactless debit card transaction costs are borne by the relevant bank. Back in February 2012, my bank sent me a new contactless debit card, which I returned to them in person. As I have written in the past, the whole contactless payment system is riddled with security holes and undocumented features. With hardware and software freely available online, it is possible to remotely interrogate a contactless card and to read certain data from it. The range is only about ten feet, but it is close enough for a crook with a card reader and a smart phone running illicit software. You only need to be standing in the same queue, or sharing a lift for the stealing of your card information to happen. Scary but true. One practical way to prevent this happening is to keep all of your cards in a specially RF shielded wallet or purse. Incidentally, London buses will stop accepting cash for fares on the 6th of July; they will only accept Oyster, contactless debit card and good, old fashioned paper travel cards (which I use, as they are the only non – hackable payment solution – sometimes the old ways are still the best). If you thought this apparent paranoia was taking things all a bit far, well, think again. More than a thousand “swipe and pay” and point of sale terminals worldwide have been compromised by a new strain of malware, results of a March 2014 probe have revealed. During a survey of compromised point of sale terminals, accounting systems and grocery management platforms, the Nemanja botnet was fingered as one of the biggest of the lot. After infiltrating various small businesses and grocery stores, the botnet then sets up a means to lift credit card and other sensitive data from compromised systems. Cyber-intelligence firm IntelCrawler said it had detected 1,478 hosts infected by Nemanja in countries as far apart as Australia, Israel and Zambia. Various systems in the UK, US and Germany have also been infected by the key logging malware. The latest malware is part of a larger trend of cybercrooks using it to target retailers’ office systems and cash registers. This malware is then used to lift sensitive information from compromised systems. For example, a variant of the BlackPOS was reportedly used in the final phase of the multi-stage attack against US retail giant Target. The estimated 40 million credit card records from the Target breach have subsequently been offered up for sale through underground hacking forums and the sheer volume of information has had the effect of pushing down the price of compromised details – a classic case of supply and demand. I have had practical, personal experience of malware infecting cashless payment systems; unfortunately I cannot detail the story here and now, as it could potentially help the bad guys. Suffice to say that they can be very difficult to detect, and even harder to successfully eradicate. 

One thing I have always been very keen on in respect of the Maggot Sandwich, is the promotion of independent local companies. I am happy to say that I have some good experiences to share with you. As I recently mentioned, Pewty Acres has been undergoing a bit of a makeover, which has included the back garden, which has been looking a state for far longer than I care to admit. I decided late last years that I would be undertaking a “year zero” approach to the garden, and start it again from scratch. This has included killing off the old moss and weed infested lawn, having the top couple of inches containing the remaining turf stripped and prepared for a new surface. The biggest challenge has been to have a large fir tree removed. When I moved in, the tree was tiny – I think it was an ex Christmas tree that had been planted by the previous owners. Over the intervening years it grew until it was substantially taller than the house. The down side to this was that not only did it block much of the sunlight from the back of the house, especially affecting the kitchen, which could be very dingy in the winter. Not only that, but the other problem was something that also affected my neighbours – the tree shed prodigious quantities of needles, which were very good at clogging up guttering. I decided that enough was enough, and the tree had to go. I contacted Keven Watt Quality Tree Care (no it is not a typo, that’s how his name is spelled). Keven came round, took a careful look at the giant fir that was completely dominating my garden, took some measurements and gave me a very reasonable quotation. A couple of weeks later, a massive, purpose built lorry towing a large wood shredding machine appeared in the access road at the bottom of my garden. Three burly looking blokes got out and very quickly started work. One donned climbing gear and soon was tied to the top of the tree, where he started very scientifically removing the branches with a small but powerful chainsaw, which he then passed down to his two colleagues on the ground. They then put the branches into the shredder, which then sprayed the resulting wood chips into the back of the van. Their work was precisely choreographed and it was evident that they had all done this innumerable times before. Soon all that was left was the main trunk. The climber got down and made a couple of cuts in the base, then the trunk was carefully pulled down. Once it was on the ground, the trunk was chopped into manageable segments and loaded into the van. The team then spent quite some time cleaning up and making good.  A week later, another chap turned up with a second large van towing a stump grinding machine – something that looks like a cross between a rotavator and an oil rig drill. The chap put some steel spikes into the ground around the stump and exposed roots, then attached a flexible vinyl guard panel, to stop flying debris. Twenty minutes later, and the trunk base and roots were completely gone, leaving only the pleasant pine smell behind. Again the chap was assiduous in the way he cleaned up.  He told me that nothing goes to waste. The huge quantity of wood chippings that had been generated when the tree branches were shredded were recycled as biodiesel, and the large wooden logs from the trunk went to a mushroom farm (mushrooms usually grow on dead wood). Everything the company do is keyed to recycling and re – use, which was very reassuring to hear. All the staff at Keven Watt Quality Tree Care were polite, efficient and obviously well versed in the technicalities of their jobs. I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone requiring work done on their trees. It is nice to be able to report on a local company who excel in their field, and rightly deserve recognition for their work.

The photo above was sent to me by local historian Ken Chamberlain. It was taken in the early 1960's and shows both the Vox and Elizabethan Electronics factories, side by side, just off West Street. I am pretty certain the shot was taken prior to 1965, as Elizabethan moved their production facility to Romford then, and also in 1965, the research and development department of Vox, which was located on the top floor of their building was severely damaged by a fire. Fortunately the fire was extinguished before it could spread to the rest of the building. Whilst Vox still exist as a brand (now owned and operated by Japanese musical instrument maker Korg), Elizabethan Electronics have long ceased trading. There is still is a tenuous link to the Elizabethan brand in Erith. A commercial vehicle servicing and repair company called Elizabethan Motor Services, a small independent motor garage specialising in the maintenance and repair of cars and light commercial vehicles. They are located in the small industrial estate in Wheatley Terrace Road, almost opposite the excellent Abbey Car Breakers. I have no idea if there is any kind of connection between the two, if anyone knows, please inform me.

Here is a bit of a scoop. The first brewery in the London Borough of Bexley since Reffells was bought and closed down by Courage and Barclay Ltd in 1956 will shortly be going into production. Bexley Brewery, which is run by a chap called Cliff Murphy is currently in preparation for a late summer opening. You can see their website by clicking here. He’s secured an industrial unit in Erith which will house the brewery. The brewing equipment is due to be installed during the month of August, and the first brew is scheduled for September. I have been in Email contact with Cliff, and hope to have an exclusive feature, including photographs of the Bexley Brewery once brewing has got under way. Watch this space.

I am not quite sure what to make of the following piece; it will be interesting to see what kind of feedback I get from you, dear reader. A campaign has started in America to discourage hand shaking as a form of greeting. The campaign organisers have a logically argued set of reasons. In essence, eighty percent of all infectious diseases are passed from person to person by hand contact, and according to the American Centre for Disease Control, the single greatest threat to human health is the transmission of harmful bacteria by human touch. The Mayo Clinic recently wrote “Why are most people offended when you don’t want to shake their hand? You are not rejecting them or calling their personal hygiene into question. You are simply reducing your exposure to germs that they unknowingly carry. Germs live everywhere. You can find germs in the air, on food, plants and animals, in the soil, in the water, and on just about every other surface — including your own body. Most germs won’t harm you. Your immune system protects you against a multitude of infectious agents. However, some germs are formidable adversaries because they’re constantly mutating to breach your immune system’s defences”. This has been scientifically supported by research carried out by the American Society for Microbiology “While 92% of adults say they wash their hands in public restrooms observational studies say otherwise. In an observational study of 6,076 adults, sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), only 66% of men actually washed their hands in public restrooms. The women did much better with 88% taking to the sinks. The study was conducted in 2005, but before you think times are different because of H1N1 flu scares, think again. A more recent survey conducted July 28 – 31, 2009 by the Bradley Corporation said a full 54% of the 1,020 respondents “wash their hands no more or less frequently” in a public toilet as a result of the H1N1 virus. The ASM found similar results in 2003, despite public concerns of the SARS virus”. According to the Centre for Disease Control “scientists estimate that people who are not washing their hands often or well enough may transmit up to 80% of all infections by their hands. From doorknobs to animals to food, harmful germs can live on almost everything. Hand washing may be your single most important act to help stop the spread of infection and stay healthy. As a reminder, hand hygiene requires soap and water or alcohol-based hand rubs. Antibacterial soaps provide no advantage”. The practical result of this is that you cannot rely on the person you shake hands with as having clean hands. I can appreciate this from my own recent personal experience. You may recall that I suffered a terrible bout of Gastroenteritis a couple of months ago as the direct result of forgetting to wash my hands after a supermarket trip, then eating a packet of crisps. I was out of action for nearly two weeks as a result. The stop hand shaking campaign may well have a valid point, though my own opinion is that the risk of unintentionally offending someone is probably currently greater than the risk of catching something nasty. Personally I am fastidious about hand hygiene, but unsure how well others observe it. Your thoughts would be welcomed. You can either leave a comment below, or Email hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I make an apology to Darryl Chamberlain of the excellent 853 blog, who was the original person to post the video below. Whilst I know quite a number of Maggot Sandwich readers also follow the 853 blog (link to the right hand side of the screen), some may not. Darryl uncovered the video, which shows a short public information film describing the work to rebuild London Bridge Station back in 1974 / 75. The station is now being rebuilt again. One of the changes made in 2015 will be that passengers on the Dartford to London via Greenwich line (that includes travellers from Slade Green, Erith, Belvedere and Abbey Wood) will no longer be able to get off at London Bridge or Charing Cross. All trains on our line will not stop at London Bridge, but will go straight through to Cannon Street only. This may be OK in the week, as most commuters on the line end up in the city anyway, but at evenings and weekends it will be a real pain, as Cannon Street and the City are pretty much dead then. If you want to go to the West End, you will need to use the tube from Cannon Street station. You can read more about the changes, along with a schedule of when they will be taking place by clicking here. I don't know how many local people will be aware exactly how far reaching the changes will actually be.