Moat House - a year on.

It is now just over a year since the fire that destroyed the roof and much of the upper storey of Moat House, the affordable rent apartment block in James Watt Way, Erith. The block had been open for less than two months before the fire happened. The block is still empty and covered with scaffolding as you can see in the photo above - click on the photo for a larger view. I have asked for updates from Moat Housing Association and other parties, but information has not been very forthcoming. I understand that the cause of the fire was thought to be down to a faulty voltage inverter on the solar panels installed on the roof of the block, but little if any detail has been released. When I most recently contacted Moat for an update, the only response I got from them was from their public relations department, which read:- "We have been working hard to bring the building back into use. Damage to the building was caused not only by the fire but also by the action taken by the fire brigade who pumped water into the building and the frame to ensure that the fire was fully extinguished. As a result, we have had to wait for the frame of the building to dry out fully before being able to restore the building. Clearly we will be bringing the building back into use as soon as we can and in the meantime we continue to work with Bexley Council to source other accommodation for the residents". This all sounds rather weak and designed to fob off any serious enquiries. Do you know any differently? Drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com in confidence.

I have noticed a number of advertising posters on bus stops and hoardings around the local area over the last few weeks. The posters in question have a banner headline “Amazon are recruiting in Tilbury” and are encouraging local candidates to apply for positions within the expanding company. Putting aside any arguments in respect the working practises and conditions in an Amazon warehouse, one may also wonder why the adverts are appearing in Erith, Lower Belvedere and Northumberland Heath. I think the advertising may be somewhat misplaced; as you may well have experienced in the past, the “find my nearest branch” functionality of many companies websites can sometimes return some rather strange answers when the River Thames is involved. The algorithm that the find function uses in in many cases based on “as the crow flies” distances, rather than practically navigable distances, as this is a far simpler system to implement, and is “just good enough” in many cases. I get the feeling that the advertising agency employed by Amazon drew a circle on a map a number of miles around the location of the new distribution centre in Tilbury, and then rented advertising hoardings in areas contained within the circle.  Many of the jobs currently on offer at the Amazon depot are at the lower end of the salary band, and are likely to appeal to people who are not particularly well off, and quite possibly will not have access to a car. Travelling from the local area to Tilbury by public transport is a slow and quite arduous experience, and one that I feel would deter many people from applying for the roles on offer. It seems to me that Amazon have missed a major point in their targeted advertising. I know that I am not alone in wondering exactly why they had swamped the local area with advertising – it may have been an oversight on the part of their advertising consultants. If you don't have a car and live in Bexley, commuting to Tilbury on a daily basis might as well be Las Vegas. 

In a move that has not surprised many, Bexley Council have extended their trial of the controversial outsourced litter patrols until this time next year. The patrols, run by Kingdom Environmental Ltd were featured using some underhand, if not outright illegal tactics on a BBC Panorama documentary shown earlier this year. It was thought at the time that Bexley would use the findings of the undercover BBC investigation to terminate the Kingdom contract early, but the opposite seems to be the case. In any case, I have doubts about its efficacy; the litter patrols seem to be almost exclusively confined to Bexleyheath Broadway. From what I have been told, when the patrols were extended to Erith and Slade Green, they quickly returned to Bexleyheath after they found slim pickings. They have been termed the “butt police” by some local commenters – which seems to be appropriate, as even Kingdom Environmental’s own statistics show that 94.4 percent of fines were issued for cigarette butts – I guess that this is because they are regarded as “easy pickings” by the enforcement officers. What they are doing about fly tipping and other forms of littering are currently somewhat unclear. It would seem very little. Do you have any experiences regarding the “butt police” – what do you think? 

  

The photos above show the flower beds in the Erith Riverside Gardens. You may recall that these were replanted at great expense some months ago. I expressed my frustration at the time that after all of the new dwarf bushes were planted, they were subsequently not watered during a period of heat heat and absolutely no rain. I am a member of FORGE (Friends of Riverside Gardens Erith) and I raised the matter with them; it turns out that Bexley Council limit what FORGE can do in respect of maintaining the gardens, as the work is outsourced to a private company. I have since discovered that the private company has been cheating the Bexley council tax payer. A well - placed confidential source has passed me some information that leads me to suspect that the contractor was playing more than a little fast and loose in respect of the work they were being paid for in the Riverside Gardens. After a recent audit, it was determined that the contractor had not been weeding the flower beds, and of the 3,000 plants that should have been planted, 1,200 were never planted, and of the 1,800 that were planted, they were not watered, and subsequently approximately ninety percent of them have now died. As you can see in the photos above (click on either for a larger view), all of the plants that are brown are actually dead. The contractor is legally obliged to replace dead and missing plants, and has already been subject to a substantial financial penalty. The remedial work has to be completed by the 1st of December, or a further penalty will be imposed. If they had just done the job properly in the first place, instead of skimping, none of this need have happened. The other problem this highlights is that the prime growing period is in late Spring and early Summer - a time that has now passed. Newly planted bushes may well not thrive if introduced into the flower beds in the Autumn. 

Semi regular Maggot Sandwich contributor Dana Wiffen has, after the recent and ongoing problems with SouthEastern Trains, written the following open letter to his MP, James Brokenshire; I think it may well be of interest, and strike a chord with many readers. See what you think:- "COMMUTERS AND TRAVELLERS TO LONDON BEWARE! Transport Minister Chris Grayling wants to destroy your choice of destination stations into London. I thought the massive engineering work at London Bridge was meant to relieve the pressure on trains being bottle-necked at London Bridge and therefore this would make everyone’s commute into Waterloo East, Charing Cross, Cannon Street and of course London Bridge stations easier. Oh no, Chris Grayling has other ideas, firstly he voices his thoughts that all trains on the Bexleyheath Line should only travel to Cannon Street, then when there is an outcry followed by a protest and petition, he says I probably won’t do that but I may halt services to Victoria Station as they are not as busy as the other routes into London terminuses. Here is a message for Chris Grayling, the Victoria route is busy, many passengers use it to travel to Kings Hospital (Denmark Hill Station) or to Victoria Coach Station (Victoria Train Station). Just because you can get a seat on this service does not mean it is underused, this is how the other services should be! The Transport Minister clearly does not understand the awful conditions suffered by commuters on SE-Trains, with overcrowding, signal failures, and train failures a constant problem. Promised longer trains have not materialised on the Bexleyheath Line and his comments that Crossrail when it opens in 2018, that it will relieve some of the problems and the need for the Victoria trains is ill advised and wrong. Instead of coming out with these crazy ideas, firstly concentrate on getting the London Bridge engineering works completed, then get rid of the useless SE-Train operators and either hand it to a new and better operator or let TFL run it. Improve and expand the choices of destinations to Victoria, Cannon Street, Waterloo East, Charing Cross and Cannon Street so that they can be reached from all lines, Woolwich, Bexley and Bexleyheath. Ensure that all commuters are able to travel on clean and on time trains that do not constantly break down and with plenty of carriages. His job is to listen to SE-Commuters who pay a fortune for travelling on poor train services most of the time and not look at ways of saving money and making it more difficult to travel to and from work. He has already lost his Party bucket loads of votes in the last election, would you vote for a party that helps support an operator that provides a useless service, and then threatens to make it even worse for commuters who have to go through even more hell than usual because of the engineering works around London Bridge?" What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

I have had several Emails from readers over the last week asking me why I did not cover the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Marine Offences Act coming into force, which happened last Sunday. To be honest there are a couple of reasons; firstly the event had been extensively covered by the mainstream press - both Sky News (with an absolutely dreadful, badly filmed and very inaccurate piece) and the BBC News (with a far better article that was actually historically and technically accurate) covered the anniversary in some depth. Radio Caroline - the only offshore station to stay on air after the MOA came into force, also ran a series of events to commemorate the passing of the hated bill. Ironically the isolation and operational restrictions the new law brought into force back in 1967 coincided with the most creative and inspiring period in Caroline's history, when they switched from being a top 40 pop station to being Europe's first album station, and created a unique sound which many listeners still feel was their finest period - and something that they have returned to in the present. Secondly, I was only one month old when the MOA came into force, and thus was not best placed to have any involvement in the situation at that time. My involvement in Radio Caroline came far later - in the late 80's / early 90's when things were far different. You can see my photos from my time with the station by clicking here. There is a local historical connection to an offshore radio station, though it was not Caroline. Northumberland Heath based Grooms “The Hygienic Baker”, who began in a shop in West Street in Victorian times, became extremely successful, and later moved into dedicated premises in Belmont Road, Northumberland Heath, where it is to this day. This massive bakery also featured stables for the horses that pulled their vans, along with a tack room and even a forge for their dedicated Farrier. The bakery is still there nowadays, though it is now owned by British Bakeries, and the stables are long gone. Something now little known is that in the mid 1960’s, Rank Hovis McDougall (the company who took over and absorbed Grooms prior to the advent of British Bakeries) were a major sponsor and commercial partner with offshore radio station Radio 390. Radio 390 was located on the abandoned Red Sands sea fort, off the coast of Whitstable. The station was the third enterprise to broadcast from the fort – previously it had been used by Radio Invicta from June 1964 until February 1965, followed by KING Radio from March to September 1965. Both these earlier stations were amateurish affairs, and used a relatively low powered one kilowatt AM transmitter feeding into a rather inefficient antenna system. This meant that their signal was not heard over a wide area, and they struggled to gain a decent audience, and consequently they were largely ignored by advertisers. All this changed with the advent of Radio 390, which was a far more slick and professional organisation, and had both a rather more powerful ten Kilowatt medium wave transmitter (which they told people was actually thirty five Kilowatts, but it wasn't), and a huge and very efficient 297 foot tall vertical antenna mean that the signal of Radio 390 was audible all over London and the South East – the most lucrative market in the UK as far as advertising revenue was concerned. The format of the station was also a complete contrast to that played by the ship based offshore giants – Radio London and Radio Caroline; they both played non – stop pop music. Instead, Radio 390 was firmly targeted at housewives. When regular broadcasts began on the 25th September 1965 at 4pm on a wavelength of 388 Metres (773KHz) the musical format was easy listening, smooth classical and big bands – the first track played was “Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller. While other offshore stations had shows lasting two or three hours, Radio 390's schedule contained a number of short programmes. This was more like a BBC schedule than an offshore one. And, although slightly more warm and informal, the presenters had an almost BBC-ish style too, even to the extent that at the end of each show one of the presenters would give a credit (“South Of The Border was introduced by....”) in the manner of a continuity announcer. As Radio 390 grew, other programmes were added to the mix. There was a daily drama serial, “Doctor Paul”, imported from Australia, and bravely scheduled opposite the BBC Light Programme's long-established Mrs. Dale's Diary; and there were shows devoted to musicals, blues, country and light classical music. After only three weeks on the air, the station was receiving some five hundred fan letters a day. By May 1966 National Opinion Polls estimated the station's audience as 2.6 million listeners, a majority of whom were women. This was an absolute goldmine for the advertisers, who flocked to the station in droves. Back in the sixties, it was less common for women, especially once they were married to go out to work; many stayed at home and looked after the children. They had almost complete control over domestic purchases such as brands of food and cleaning materials. The fact that Radio 390 very cleverly targeted this audience meant that advertisers were prepared to pay high rates to get their commercials broadcast; companies that took out ambitious and successful campaigns on Radio 390 included The News of the World, and the magazine Reveille, along with a host of smaller companies, but the biggest of the lot was for Mother’s Pride bread, which was produced by Rank Hovis McDougall in the Northumberland Heath bakery. There is some evidence to suggest that the advertising campaign and programme sponsorship on Radio 390 was so extensive that the baker became an investor and business partner in the radio station during the summer of 1966, though as the Government began to take action to stop the offshore stations, and prepared to introduce the 1967 Marine Offences Act, many investors decided to distance themselves from offshore broadcasting altogether. In September 1966, Radio 390 was taken to court for the first in a series of cases where they were accused of broadcasting from within British territorial limits. The cases were fought, and one by one they were lost by the station, they appealed, then lost the appeal; by the summer of 1967 the Marine Offences Act passed into law, and all offshore stations with the exception of Radio Caroline had ceased broadcasting. Radio 390 was also such a casualty. The station is largely forgotten now, but in 1966 it was one of the biggest radio hits in the UK, and had a real connection with the local area, thanks to the power of Mother’s Pride and the Northumberland Heath former Groom's bakery!

Now to some crime reports from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association; firstly from the Northumberland Heath Ward:- "Just a reminder that there is a litter pick on Tuesday 22nd August between 4pm-7pm. Please meet at Mill Road Car Park at 4pm. The Car Park, Alleyways and High Street are to be cleared. All residents welcome. There appears to be an increase of vans being stolen across the borough, one has been stolen in Parsonage Manor Way, and one from Becton Place in the last week .Both vehicles were work vans . If possible please do not leave any paperwork or tools on show and remove valuable tools from your vehicles. A black Jaguar has been stolen from Winchelsea Avenue on Saturday August 12th at approximately 2000 hours. We are pleased to report no reported burglaries in Northumberland Heath in the last week, however a resident has reported someone climbing over her rear garden wall in the alleyway behind the chicken shop in Bexley Road. Please be vigilant and remember to close all windows and ensure all doors are locked when leaving your property unattended. There has been reports of drug exchanges taking place in Limewood Road and reports of nuisance vehicles and bikes congregating outside the Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground. Our next drop in Police surgery will be held on Thursday August 24th at 1pm in the Northumberland Heath Library in Mill Road Erith". Thamesmead East Ward:- "No Burglaries to report this week. Vehicle crime reported as follows - Theft of Motor Vehicle, Haldene Road, 11th August 2017; Theft from Motor Vehicle, Haldene Road, 11th August 2017, vehicle parts removed. Female arrested for possession of cannabis, Templar Drive, enquiries ongoing. Due to recent vehicle crime, the team have been patrolling areas targeted and are looking to use the CCTV van in the future". Erith Ward - from Police SNT Team - PCSO Adam Winch:- "Over the last week we have checked car parks for any would-be thieves, patrolled in the pouring rain we had on Wednesday – I got completely soaked twice! Found a lost Staffordshire Bull terrier, we hope is now with their owner, visited and had a coffee in the new lighthouse near Erith Pier. Extra patrols carried out in Franks park, Including early morning patrols. Visited and wished luck to the new Pie and Mash shop which opened 14/8/17  next door to Sams 99p store. The next police SNT surgery is at Morrison's on Friday 25th August at 4pm. Please feel free to pop along!" Christ Church Ward - From Police SNT Team - PC Ian Williamson:- "There have been 2 reports of Criminal Damage to motor vehicles. One within Palmer Road and one in Broomfield Road, where an arrest has been made. There has also been a Criminal damage report in both Rowan Road and Robin Hood Lane. There has been a theft of motor vehicle in Heversham Road and there have been two serious assaults around the Broadway area one of which an arrest has been made and the second the investigation continues but an arrest is highly likely. The team have also been liaising with second hand shops / pawnbrokers within the ward with a view to deterring the distribution of stolen goods passing through these premises. PC Laing and PCSO Little stopped a youth with cannabis on the ward and the youth offending team and taking this forward". Belvedere Ward - From Police SNT Team - PC Ash Green:- "The Belvedere Team have been very busy this week. Following reports of vans being broken into in the Travelodge car park, Clydesdale Way we have stepped our patrols in the area and been more of a visible presence while residents have been out at work during the day. We would like to use this opportunity to remind people that it is imperative to remove valuables from vehicles. We have regularly been patrolling our regular hot spots and have been posting pictures on Twitter. We have received reports of groups of youths on bikes causing a nuisance in the Upper Belvedere / Nuxley Road area and as and have stopped many youths on bikes in Upper Belvedere to provide them with some brief cycle safety advice and take their details. PC Green has taken numerous statements and CCTV relating to shopliftings in both Upper and Lower Belvedere. We are working with staff, particularly in Upper Belvedere, to deter the shoplifters. PC Green has also continued investigating and progressing the issue of motorcycle and vehicular ASB in Lower Belvedere". Barnehurst Ward - From Police SNT Team - PC Mark Laker:- "Another good week for Barnehurst ward crime-wise with only one crime of note reported (please note we do not include domestic crimes in this update) unfortunately a red Honda JF57 scooter was stolen from outside an address in Parkside avenue, the scooter registration number LM65 XXR was parked under the front window of a property secured with a chain on the back wheel and was taken between 8pm -10pm on the 8th August . If you have a bike of any kind please make sure that if possible it is secured to an anchor point. Please see our Twitter page - @MPSBarnehurst - for crime prevention advice. On Monday 14th we received reports of youths climbing over a car in Martens Avenue, thankfully no damage was caused, our ASB Patrols continue in and around our parks and open spaces We have seen some excellent results with very little ASB reported to us".

Since I wrote the piece on illegal moped riders a couple of weeks ago, I have been doing some research into how the problem of illegal, stolen mopeds and motor bikes is dealt with in other parts of the world. It would seem that British Police, and the Metropolitan Police in particular are rather more liberal and forgiving than Police in certain other parts of the world. I have watched countless YouTube videos of Police chases in Brazil; the officers pursuing criminals on bikes generally give the fleeing criminals a blast of the siren and a flash of the lights – and if the criminals do not immediately pull over, the officers use their car to ram the offender off the road; indeed some Police cars seem to be fitted with reinforced bumpers specially designed for such a task. There is even one video of Brazilian drug enforcement officers ramming a drug smuggling plane on an improvised jungle runway to stop it taking off. It would also would seem that some other police forces around the world also use a higher percentage of officers on motorbikes to pursue illegal bikers, and they do not give up the chase if it turns potentially dangerous for the criminals. You can see an example here. I am not of the opinion that the Met should take up this tactic on a routine basis, but it does occur to me that it ought to be an option available to them in certain specific circumstances. I don’t think that very many Londoners would strongly object to a policy of this nature. I think that many people are sick and tired of the crime wave carried out mainly by teenagers on stolen bikes on false number plates. Members of the public are losing patience with the Police, who seem to be powerless to stop them. I know that in reality this is not the case, and certainly in Bexley, the Police have got illegal bikers as one of their three highest priorities. I feel that the problem in part comes from central government and the Metropolitan Police leadership, who effectively hamper the actions of the officers “on the ground” with excessively restrictive rules of engagement. What I really fail to understand is why the bikers are obsessed with wheelies – they seem to spend as much time as they are physically able to on their back wheel. Why? What is the point? It would be just as effective and considerably cheaper to have “I am a complete pillock” tattooed across each of their foreheads. Bike Life TV UK don’t just ride around intimidating other road users and pedestrians, I understand that some of their members are involved in other types of crime. I have heard it said (but not confirmed) that some gang members move drugs around Thamesmead and Plumstead using junior gang members as couriers. Body building and Mixed Martial Arts are also popular with gang members – I have also heard to date unsubstantiated rumours that they have a major stake in the trading of illegal anabolic steroids. This might well explain the extremely violent nature and short tempers of Bike Life TV UK members – who may well be suffering from “Roid Rage". The London Evening Standard covered the gang and their illegal activities a while back. you can see the article by clicking here. The problem with legitimate vehicle number plates being stolen is particularly bad in Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green, and the rise in such thefts can be closely correlated with the deployment of the cashless payment system at the Dartford River Crossing. The new system relies on users pre – registering their vehicle on the Dart Charge system, and the system using optical character recognition to scan and identify the users’ vehicle registration plate, and then debit their account with the relevant fee for using the crossing. Putting aside the inevitable comments about “the crossing was meant to be free for locals once it had been paid for” – which I do not contend, it strikes me that there is a level of resentment about the Dartford Crossing and the charges it makes which seems ingrained in the local psyche. It seems to me that many of the local crooks steal registration plates not just to anonymise their mopeds - which are not permitted on motorways or on the Dartford Crossing, as they are not full motorcycles - which go for free, but also to use the Dartford Crossing with impunity. As I have previously mentioned, it has recently become apparent that many crimes happening in The London Borough of Havering are being committed by crooks from The London Borough of Bexley. It would seem that the illegal rider think that if they operate away from their home base, they will be less likely to be recognised by the authorities - something I think is unlikely to actually be the case at all.  The ending video is a documentary on bike gangs that was shown last year on BBC Four; it heavily features gang members from Thamesmead, and is well worth a watch, even if much of it leaves one annoyed as the criminal scumbags try and justify themselves to the interviewer. Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Erith Manor House.

Work has finally begun on repairing the fire damaged roof of Moat House in James Watt Way Erith; as you may recall, back in early August there was an extremely serious fire which destroyed much of the roof and top floor of the very recently opened block of apartments for affordable rent. All of the residents of Moat House were successfully evacuated from the building, and have subsequently been put up in temporary accommodation. The fire story made the national news. Things went very quiet since then, and my attempts at investigation had met with very little in the way of new information. I had heard contradictory reports regarding the standard of the temporary accommodation that the tenants had been moved into, but even those stories turned out to have little in the way of new information. Now things are finally moving. Over the last week scaffolding has been erected around Moat House, and preparations have begun to repair the damage the fire has caused have begun, as you can see in the photo above - click on it for  a larger view. Moat House is one of the most notable buildings in the centre of town, and the building is high enough to make itself a local landmark. It is also an important building in terms of providing much needed, high quality housing for affordable rent. Erith ranks only second to Dagenham in being the cheapest place to live within an hour's commute of central London. It is therefore becoming an increasingly attractive place to move to. I have to be honest, twenty years ago, when I first moved to Erith it was not because of the scenery or the local amenities, it was because it was very cheap at the time. That was in the days of the old hideous concrete monstrosity shopping centre, before Morrison's had opened on the old Erith Deep Water Wharf site, and when the only supermarket in the town was the small Co-Op in what is now the Farm Foods shop. Back then Erith had little in the way of amenities - what it did have however was extremely cheap housing. I was able to to buy Pewty Acres for a very reasonable £42,500 - a figure completely unimaginable now. The intervening two decades have seen Erith change hugely for the better - the refurbished Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, the Sports Centre, the Health Centre and the forthcoming new Fit4Less gym, to name but a handful of many other local amenities that have arrived in the town over the last two decades. Erith is now in a better shape than it has been for over fifty years - new homes and businesses are opening up left and right, and an influx of new people are moving into the area. There is a fair way still to go, but in my opinion things are getting steadily better, and there is more improvement to come. One mixed thing that is coming out of the gradual "gentrification" (I hate that term) of the town is that property prices are on the up. The News Shopper are reporting that research has looked at how difficult it is for someone in London to buy their own home without help from the ‘bank of mum and dad’ or a partner. It took the average salary in the capital of £34,320, banks lending buyers up to four times this figure and the average cost of a flat in London being £457,000. It then calculated that if prospective property owners put 10 per cent of their net salary away each month it would take a typical Londoner 121 years to buy that first home. Even saving 20 per cent of take-home pay, it would still take 60 years to get the keys to an average priced flat. In Bexley it would take just under 36 years to £94,311 – start now and you’d be there around this time in 2052. There currently is simply too little property being built; and whilst the London Borough of Bexley does not suffer from the absentee owner / investors as some other parts of London does, as the Elizabeth Line opens, property investors will undoubtedly hit on the area. Also on the subject of property, a tenancy fraud has been uncovered, and a man has been found guilty at Bexley Magistrates Court. The Bexley Times have reported that on October 19th, Faruq Hameed, of Bainbridge Road in Dagenham, pleaded guilty to two charges of dishonestly sub-letting his social housing flat at Cobham House, Boundary Street. Evidence collected by investigators showed Hameed was making a profit of almost £200 a month from one sub-letter, charging monthly rent of £650 - significantly higher than the £482.71 charged by Orbit Housing. An investigation By Orbit's fraud team revealed Hameed was not living at Cobham House but had been sub-letting it to others between May 2014 and December 2015, and from January 2015 to August 2015. For each charge Hameed was given six weeks imprisonment suspended for 12 months, to run concurrently; a community order for 80 hours of unpaid work and an Unlawful Profit Order for £4,800. He was also ordered to pay £500 costs and £80 victim surcharge, and a collection order was made. It would appear that the fraud did not take very long to detect and prosecute, which is good to know. I believe that Cobham House is part of the proposed Arthur Street redevelopment which Orbit plan once they have finished the second phase of the Erith Park development on the other side of Northend Road is completed. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photos above both shows Pier Road, Erith and how it looked in the past. Many thanks to the person who wishes to remain anonymous who sent me the upper black and white photo which shows the road in what appears to be the 1930's, and to Martin Barnes of the popular FaceBook group - Bexleyheath, Crayford and Erith, past, present and future, who sent me the lower colour photo of the same location, taken in 1966 shortly before the block of shops was demolished to make way for the much hated brutalist concrete shopping centre. 

It would seem that some serious consequences have come from the recent riot that took place in Northumberland Heath, that made the national news. Schools inspector OFSTED have made unannounced inspections of several local secondary schools, and have published a pretty damning report on their findings. Inspectors visited St Catherine's Catholic School, St Columba’s Catholic Boys’ School, Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys and Erith School. The report’s author, Sir Michael Wilshaw wrote:- “I found it difficult to comprehend how the individual schools did not pick up, at an early stage, that a significant number of students were plotting and planning a fight at the end of the school day.  The pastoral and welfare systems of the schools should have been finely tuned to issues of this nature and particularly to the changing atmosphere in classrooms, playgrounds and corridors as students became excited and agitated by the prospect of trouble with other schools.  All my experience has taught me that in good schools, when trouble is brewing, staff intervene and take action very quickly before events take over and escalate. This is worrying.  Leaders do not ensure that the promotion of tolerance and respect towards pupils from different groups and cultures is effective.  They do not ensure that staff consistently challenge pupils’ misconceptions and stereotypes. Good behaviour, both in and out of school, is not promoted well enough. Pupils do not receive enough information about how to keep themselves safe outside school.  Leaders therefore do not fully prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.” The report follows the riot, which took place on the evening of the 19th September, involved more than a hundred youths; there were seven arrest made by the Police, and two people were taken to hospital as a result of injuries received during the mass disturbance. After extensive investigation, it would appear that the riot initially started in Bexleyheath Broadway. Even on a normal day, hundreds of pupils from schools in the area congregate here to catch buses home. There were rumours that teenagers from rival gangs were meeting to fight after the brother of one of them had been attacked. On school days, a couple of PCSO’s stand in the square to keep an eye on the children and to encourage them to move swiftly on to buses and out of the area. On the Monday of the riot, however, shopkeepers noticed a growing crowd of children. Soon skirmishes began, and when the PCSO’s and Police officers intervened, the youths used their free bus passes to travel to Northumberland Heath, where the main violence really kicked off. Initially it was thought to be inter – school rivalry, but subsequently evidence has come to light that there was almost certainly a racial element to the violence. Two local gangs – the Thamesmead based RA (Racial Attack) gang, which is composed of white youths were pitched against members of the Woolwich based black gang, T-Block. Several national tabloid papers have engaged in some pretty lurid speculation, but at the end of the day, the riot does not seem to be very much more than the usual lawless kids kicking off – aided by social media. Now the policing situation in Bexleyheath Broadway around the clock tower have changed markedly; instead of two PCSO's, there are ten PCSO's and full Police officers commanded by a sergeant who patrol the area from early afternoon until all of the school children have left the area. This must cost an utter fortune, and stopos officers from carrying out other duties. If you have any experiences or insight into this issue, please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley CAMRA have just published the following announcement regarding popular pub magazine "Draught Copy" :- "Given that "Draught Copy", which circulates to the majority of Bexley Branch pubs as well as to Maidstone/Mid-Kent and Gravesend and Darent Valley branches, urgently needs production hands, the editor has posted the item below in the latest pages. We would like to add our voices to the appeal for assistance. If you think either of the roles listed might be the thing for you or someone you know and you might like to try your hand at it then let us know in reply here and we will coordinate as appropriate. This is a first-class CAMRA campaigning opportunity. Last Copy? It is with considerable sadness that we tell you that with the departure of editor, Tim Mathews, to Emsworth, your free local newsletter must take a break until a new editor and production team can be mustered. Thank you for reading us over the many years that this publication has been available. Thank you, too, to our advertisers who have kept the production costs viable for us within the Maidstone & Mid-Kent branch. It has been an enjoyable time putting together Draught Copy and it will be missed. But we trust that this will only be a hiatus and not a funeral. If there are any members from the three branches Draught Copy represents, who would like to take on the role(s) of editor and typesetter, then do please let us know". It would be a real shame to see the end of "Draught Copy".

Many security organisations use high definition video cameras linked to sophisticated computer based facial recognition systems to detect and record the comings and goings of people in public areas and elsewhere. Facial recognition technology has improved markedly over the last decade. Although well-trained machines can recognise objects more quickly and accurately than most humans, they can’t handle change very well. Humans can still recognise the same faces even if they appear slightly differently, but for machines it’s more difficult because they process images by searching for particular features. Slight changes to images can mislead neural networks. Researchers from the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill announced. Results from their paper “Real and Stealthy Attacks on State-of-the-Art Face Recognition” were presented at last week’s ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Austria. Criminals and ordinary people wishing to avoid being recognised simply had to be mistaken for some arbitrary face. For impersonation, the identity must be recognized as someone the system already knows. The team trained neural networks to recognize 2,622 celebrities, three researchers and two volunteers. During the trials, one of the researchers – a South Asian woman – was incorrectly read as a Middle Eastern man 88 per cent of the time. Her paper spectacles hoodwinked the artificial intelligence into simply not recognising her. Impersonation is a little tricker. Although one male researcher wearing the paper glasses could pass as Milla Jovovich, an actress and supermodel, almost 90 per cent of the time, another male researcher had a hard time trying to impersonate Clive Owen, an actor – only succeeding around 16 per cent of the time. There isn’t anything special about the spectacles themselves. The frames were just printed on paper and overlaid on proper glasses. Obviously there are simpler ways to trick facial recognition systems. People can wear face masks or heavy makeup, but the authors of the report wanted to look for ways to trick the system inconspicuously, without tampering with the facial biometric software before or during the training process. “Facial accessories, such as eyeglasses, help make attacks plausibly deniable, as it is natural for people to wear them,” the security research team said.

Erith has cropped up a few times in the course of the greater history of the United Kingdom, most famously as the place where Alexander Selkirk – the real life “Robinson Crusoe” came ashore after being shipwrecked and living on a desert island. Something that until now has been less known is that Erith is thought by some historians from Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre to have played a pivotal role in the Gunpowder Plot. In some information they released just in time for Guy Fawkes’ Night back in 2012, when they indicated that their research showed that in the summer of 1605, Erith Manor House, which was located on what is now Erith High Street, was rented under a pseudonym by Anne Vaux, the daughter of Lord William Vaux, the head of one of the wealthiest and most prominent Catholic families in the country at the time. Anne Vaux was known to arrange for safe houses to be made available for Catholic priests to hide up and hold underground church services – Catholics were widely persecuted in England at the time. Erith Manor House was considered an ideal location for Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes and the other plotters against the King to hide up, as it had, according to Catesby “a secluded but convenient location” on the banks of the Thames, which had the added benefit of offering an easy escape route by boat, should the situation arise. What the plotters did not realise was that the intelligence service of the time was aware of them – spymaster Sir Anthony Standen, first assistant to Sir Francis Walsingham, who was then head of the English Secret Service, working directly for King James I, had broken up a plot (The Bye Plot – click here for more details) eighteen months before hand, and was now acutely aware that other Catholic activists had designs on the life of the Protestant monarch. Sir Anthony had informants all over the place, and soon became aware of the small group of men who were acting very suspiciously in and around Erith. Several of the plotters had also been seen in a number of taverns in Southwark, and it is possible that they were followed back to Erith, where their safe house was then discovered. When agents subsequently raided the house, the conspirators had already made their escape, and the place was deserted. Some of this is extrapolation from verified facts – it is certain that Anne Vaux did indeed rent Erith Manor House using the cover name Mrs Perkins, though it is not certain the Gunpowder Plotters did use it as their primary base of operations – there may well have been an underground Catholic church in the house, which in itself would have aroused suspicions. Unfortunately there is no opportunity for Erith Manor House to become a tourist attraction, as it was demolished in the 19th century after falling into a state of disrepair. Personally I think the story is somewhat fanciful. A group of wealthy gentlemen taking residence would stand out like a sore thumb in a small fishing village, as Erith was back at that time. Their fine clothes and expensive horses would mark them as outsiders, and this would be certain to at the very least provoke curiosity from local people.  I think it far more likely that their base of operations was located in Southwark, which in those days was effectively lawless.

I know many law abiding local motorbike riders are heartily fed up with the illegal activities of Bike Life TV UK – the gang of feral scumbags who congregate on their stolen, uninsured and unlicensed mopeds, motorbikes and quad bikes and who criminally ride, pulling wheelies and other idiotic stunts on public roads, causing distress and danger to civilised local residents. They have seemingly ridden with impunity for the last couple of years, but it would appear that this is now thankfully changing. The gang (who laughingly refer to themselves as a “family” on their website – which may be true in a sense, as many of their members would appear to be knuckle dragging inbreds). Bike Life TV UK held a get together in Blackheath last Sunday, where over a hundred illegal riders raced along roads, many not wearing helmets; this time the Police were present, and a total of seventeen illegal bikers were stopped by the Police using stinger tyre deflation devices when the riders refused to stop when ordered. Four riders were subsequently arrested and charged with a variety of offences, including disorder and anti-social behaviour – a fact I find hard to reconcile with the fact that seventeen illegal bikers had to be forcibly stopped by puncturing their bike tyres – I would have expected all of them to have been arrested under the circumstances? Still – it is a start. The Police regularly confiscate and crush illegal bikes – the trouble is, the criminal bikers just go and steal new ones. It would seem that the events of Halloween eve in Blackheath may be the start of a well – overdue crackdown on the gang. Their principal areas of operation are Thamesmead, Lower Belvedere and the Slade Green Marshes, although Bike Life TV UK are now such a large criminal group that their activities spread to a far wider area nowadays. Several of the group have been injured in carrying out stunts on public roads, and two have actually been killed. This needs to stop.

Bexley Brewery have announced their real ale lineup for Christmas - you can see their order form above - click on for a larger version - please feel free to download the form to print out and place an order with them. If you have not sampled their ales before, they produce extremely high quality beers made with locally sourced ingredients; I am  regular customer at their brewery and shop, located on the Manford Industrial Estate at the Slade Green end of Manor Road, Erith.

I have previously written at some lengths about by opposition to the government’s proposed roll – out of smart utility meters. News was published earlier this week that the IT system designed to underpin the smart meter roll – out remains unfinished. The last time it missed a smart meter deadline, the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) promised that “the new infrastructure is planned to go live at the end of September”. That did not happen. The IT system was initially planned to be up and running in April 2015, but was subsequently delayed until December 2015, then April 2016, then August 2016, and has now missed its September 2016 deadline. The project is being run by a subsidiary of Capita called The Data and Communications Company (DCC), which responsible for providing the communications infrastructure for smart meter readings. The smart meter infrastructure project was subject to an impact assessment back in 2014. The result of that assessment was that the project would come with an £11 billion bill to be paid by customers, and was described as “in danger of becoming a "costly failure" by a government report after a farcical number of delays and internal government warnings that it would most likely not be completed for another 50 years. Last year, the Institute of Directors warned that the smart meter project would add billions to consumers' bills and that the rollout "should be 'halted, altered or scrapped' to avoid a potentially catastrophic government IT disaster". As of today, the “timely rollout” of the smart meter system promised by the government has remained anything but, and the requirement to see domestic suppliers using the DCC by 1 August of next year seems as if it may not be met. The potential annual cost savings that energy companies claim, are frankly minuscule compared with an average household’s  other outgoings, and certainly too small to warrant drastic changes like replacing the fridge or oven, or less drastic ones like pre-emptively changing the lightbulbs. The irony of course is that those who would benefit the most from reducing their energy bills are generally those without the cash to do something about it. I am sure a lot of people on the bread line would like to save £20 a month by upgrading their electrical appliances, but they are a bit stuffed by not having the money to do so. The best most of them can do is to turn things off, and you don't need a smart meter to tell you that. Germany has already cancelled their own domestic smart meter programme, on the grounds that forecasts showed that it was going to cost far more money than it would have saved, and that is aside from any personal privacy or network infrastructure security worries that I have outlined in the past.

Concerns are growing in respect of the future fate of Hall Place, the borough’s stately home located conveniently close to the A2 at Old Bexley. The trust which has run the historic house and formal gardens has announced that it is no longer able to operate.  Cuts to the trust’s council grant and the prospect of becoming self-sufficient by 2020 mean the Tudor house and gardens will be handed back to the council as of April 2017 after a unanimous vote by trustees. Bexley Council have announced that the historic site is safe, but I share the concerns of many local residents. Speaking in the Bexley Times, Councillor Peter Craske said it was  “a ‘difficult decision’ caused by the gradual removal of funding from central government. The council recognises the significance of Hall Place and Gardens - an important and well-loved heritage site – which is not only an impressive historic destination for residents and tourists, but also provides a premiere wedding and event venue. In recognition of its value, I would like to make it absolutely clear that it will be ‘business as normal’ for Hall Place House and Gardens – both as a visitor attraction and also as a wedding/event venue.” From the experience these reassurances may count for little, though at present it is too early to say for certain. I doubt that anything drastic will happen to Hall Place – I don’t foresee it being converted into a Travelodge, for example (Hall Place is a Grade 1 listed historic building) but I do think that changes are likely to take place. If you have any insight into this, please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The ending video this week shows Erith Pier - the longest pier on the River Thames, and one of the most overlooked and underrated features of the town. The video shows the pier both with the tide out, showing the extensive mudflats, and at high tide. When the weather is nice there are few better places to be than strolling on the pier. Have a watch and see what you think.

Moat House.

There has been somewhat of an air of mystery surrounding Moat House in James Watt Way. As I have previously reported, the brand new apartment block suffered damage after a severe fire caused by what is currently thought to have been an electrical fault in the roof mounted solar panels on the building on the 8th of August. The residents of the social housing block were successfully evacuated and put into temporary accommodation in a hotel. It was anticipated that repairs to the fire damaged roof of the apartment block would be completed by the end of August. This would appear to not be the case, however. At the time of writing, the block is still empty and unoccupied, even though it is now a month later than the date when the apartments were meant to be re-occupied. I recently walked past the block at a little after 9pm in the evening. All the lights were out, and the place was silent. It is surprising how nothing has been written in the local press about the situation, especially bearing in mind how high profile the news of the fire and subsequent evacuation was – the story made the national press in a few instances. I have subsequently discovered that things are worse than originally reported. A couple of sources have informed me that the residents of Moat House have now been transferred out of the Marriott hotel accommodation they were originally given, and relocated into cheaper local bed and breakfast accommodation; one (unconfirmed) report I have heard is that in one case a woman with two children is having to share a single room in a Bed and Breakfast - more on this later, as it turns out there is more to this story. If this was not bad enough, I have also been told that Moat Housing told the evacuated residents - many of those who only had the clothes they stood up in - that they could spend up to a specified budget on essential items such as replacement clothes, toiletries and other items needed for everyday life. Moat said that they would then reimburse the evacuated residents. I have heard accounts that Moat have reneged on this agreement, leaving residents out of pocket. I must emphasise that I am awaiting verification of this, but the information comes from a previously reliable source. The Moat affordable rent apartment block was a flagship development in Erith, promising (relatively) cheap housing for those in most need. It was part funded by the Mayor of London's Office, and was designed to be a flagship model for new housing in Greater London. I have been in contact with someone who is involved with the situation at Moat House, and I have discovered that the position is actually worse than had been anticipated. My contact informs me that at present the block will very likely remain empty for months, due to a combination of factors. Firstly Moat are awaiting a fire report which will analyse and identify the precise cause of the fire that destroyed much of the roof and damaged the top floor - at present the diagnosis of an electrical  fault is supposition, and is not verified at this time. Tenants will not be able to move in until the cause has been identified and rectified. On top of this, I am told that some of the reports published in the News Shopper and elsewhere, with Moat tenants being quoted as saying that they were being threatened with being thrown out of a hotel were simply untrue with no basis whatsoever in fact. I have also been told by an impeccably reliable and authoritative source that all Moat Housing Association tenants are required as a condition of their tenancy contract to have taken out private insurance on the contents of their apartment; Almost none of the tenants in Moat house had this insurance, leaving them both financially exposed, and in contravention of their tenancy agreements. Moat are currently trying to get former Moat House tenants into more suitable medium term accommodation whilst the investigative and remedial work is carried out on the fire damaged apartment building. The problem is the acute shortage of such housing in The London Borough of Bexley. It is ironic that the construction of Moat House was designed to alleviate the social housing requirement in the borough, but instead it has ended up in making the situation worse. It looks like Moat House could be empty and unoccupied until well after Christmas; I feel that this story will run for quite some time. If you have any insight into the Moat House fire and the subsequent situation, please drop me a line – it can be in complete confidence should you so wish – to hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Some more much needed social housing is being constructed in Erith. Work is well under way to build four three bedroomed town houses and twelve two bedroomed flats in West Street on the site of the old St. John’s Hall. The hall used to be used by a company called Re-Instate Ltd, whose primary purpose was to offer a sheltered workshop environment to adults with Mental Health problems and Learning Disabilities. Those who attended Re-Instate gained experience of work, were given training in various job skills, mix with others, and over time gained confidence and self-esteem. Re-Instate seem to still be operating, and their website can be seen here. I am guessing that they have sold off the old site to property developers and have used the money to find a new base of operations elsewhere. I will be covering Re-Instate in more details in a future edition of the Maggot Sandwich.

On Tuesday afternoon I had occasion to be in Avenue Road, Bexleyheath for a meeting. The shopping area there is rather old fashioned, and all of the better for it. The area has not changed very much since the 1930's, when many of the properties were originally constructed. I like it a lot. The Co-Op store there has a modern facade and internal layout, but its' cultural and historical DNA is still very much present. In the newspapers and publications section of the store, amongst the usual copies of the Sun and the Telegraph were a couple of copies of The Morning Star - the tabloid rag of the communist party. It was not really that surprising that the little read propaganda sheet would be on sale in the Bexleyheath branch of the Co-Op. It was after all the same branch that the late Soviet spy and traitor Melita Norwood used to do most of her grocery shopping, along with the other Co-Op branch in Long Lane. She lived nearby in Garden Avenue for very many years. I wonder who would buy the paper nowadays?

You may recall that I gave extensive coverage to the recent relaunch of Erith Market, which was visited by then London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith. Unfortunately only a handful of weeks later the whole thing spluttered to a halt when no market traders bothered to turn up – at the high point there had only been six stalls, which was nothing like enough to build up a sustainable interest. The other problem was the decision to hold the market on a Wednesday – as one regular Maggot Sandwich reader called Derek put it recently:- “I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only one that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week”. Bexley Council have recently submitted a new planning application for a far larger and more ambitious market plot, which will stretch along Pier Road from Cross Street in the West to the boundary of Morrison’s car park in the East. It would potentially involve thirty two stalls, though at this point what goods they would be selling is not outlined at this point. I sincerely hope that the new attempt is successful – the prime requirement in my mind is that the market is open on Saturdays, and not just Wednesdays. As Derek wrote, many local residents cannot attend a market held during a working week, as they are working. I am also concerned that the previous, half-hearted attempt at a relaunch may scare off some potential stall holders. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The latest edition of the Good Beer Guide has some very encouraging words for Bexley’s micro pubs. The first local micro pub was the Door Hinge in Welling, shortly thereafter followed by the Penny Farthing in Crayford, then the Broken Drum in Blackfen. All three of these fine establishments feature in the new Good Beer Guide, along with the Compass Ale House in Gravesend.  Bearing in mind that South East London and North Kent have been at the forefront of the micro pub revolution  - the area has done much to promote these no frills, no television pubs which encourage the art of conversation and discourage the use of smart phones. Another micro Pub called The Hopper's Hut is opening on the 7th October in Sidcup - thanks to long time reader Barney for the information. Micro pubs tend to be set up in former retail units, rather than in public house premises. It would be nice to see a micro pub in Erith or Northumberland Heath, though I think Northumberland Heath would be a more attractive location than Erith, due to the fact that Wetherspoons are actively looking for a potential pub outlet in Erith. As I have written before, the most likely venue for a new local Wetherspoons pub would be the old Carnegie Library building in Walnut Tree Road (see the photo above - click on it for a larger view), which has been abandoned and unused for nearly six years.  The old library building was going to be converted into a training centre for the hospitality and hotel industry as part of Bexley College, but the funding fell through, and the project was cancelled. Now that Bexley College is being administered by Bromley College, the future of other potential collaborative projects is unclear. Wetherspoons have a very good reputation for sensitive restoration of old buildings; my understanding is that the former Carnegie Library has a severe damp problem on the main brick frontage, and the lack of preventative maintenance has caused a number of fairly serious issues with the building fabric. Wetherspoons have deep enough pockets to be able to finance major construction, conversion and conservation work if they did decide to purchase the building for use as a pub / restaurant. The only downside I can think of is that the former library has no local parking, though local public transport links are excellent - the library building is very close to Erith Station, and the bus halts in front of Erith Riverside Shopping Centre are just around the corner. This does not usually deter Wetherspoons, who seem more interested in the local customer demographic, than car parking issues.

As I have written in the past, issues with smart utility meters seem to be continuing. Just in the last week, it has been announced that Smart meters will benefit suppliers nearly twice as much as consumers in terms of cost savings, according to an assessment by the late Department for Energy and Climate Change. The government's £11bn smart meter project will require energy suppliers to offer 53 million meters to homes and small businesses by 2020. Smart meters are being rolled out in two phases. The mass rollout phase is expected to begin next month, after several major delays. There are now more than 3.6 million smart meters in operation. A Parliamentary Science and Technology Committee “evidence check” of smart meters noted that "although the scale and durability of such savings is contested and it would appear that the rollout could alter consumption levels by 2–3 per cent.”Nick Hunn, CTO of WiFore Consulting, told the committee he was sceptical of the extent to which consumers will change their behaviour for a relatively modest financial reward, arguing that “£26 a year or 7p a day is not a big incentive”, and that “there are far cheaper ways of achieving savings”. The government has pegged the overall cost benefits at £17 billion, which will also include network benefits such as reduced outage notification calls, fault fixing; generation benefits, and reduction in CO2. However, the committee criticised the smart meter rollout for having too many objectives. "The government should be clearer about the primary purpose of smart metering and use this to drive evaluation of the project. Taking this approach will help make future evidence check statements clearer,” it said. It also said the government needs to do more to communicate the national benefits of smart metering alongside the potential cost savings and efficiencies for individual consumers. The impact of smart meters will be limited without this support from installers and Smart Energy GB, the public engagement body for the programme, according to the committee. Rob Smith, head of policy and public affairs at Smart Energy GB, has also warned that the programme will only succeed if people are made aware of the benefits. The report also found "unwarranted concerns in media reports" about smart meter security could diminish public trust in the programme. It said further efforts may be necessary to convince the wider public that smart meters are secure. This is all very well, but as has been demonstrated by more than one IT security organisation, the smart meters are very far from secure - the meters report back to their energy supply company by an unsecured 3G phone signal, which can easily be intercepted and manipulated.  I get the feeling this will run and run.

The following announcement has been made by the local Police:- If you would like to become involved with Neighbourhood Watch and set up a scheme for your road (if you do not have one), please let us know. If you are unsure if you do have a scheme in your road, again, email us and we can let you know. Surgery and Street Briefing dates and times for Northend Ward in OCTOBER 2016 are listed below.

MONDAY 03/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530  OUTSIDE SLADE GREEN PRIMARY AND HABERDASHERS SCHOOL, SLADE GREEN ROAD

TUESDAY 04/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530  OUTSIDE PEARESWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL, PEARESWOOD ROAD

SATURDAY 08/OCTOBER/2016  1100-1200  FOREST ROAD CAFÉ

MONDAY 10/OCTOBER/2016  1030-1130 SLADE GREEN LIBRARY

WEDNESDAY 19/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530 OUTSIDE SLADE GREEN PRIMARY AND HABERDASHERS SCHOOL, SLADE GREEN ROAD

FRIDAY 21/OCTOBER/2016  1500-1530 OUTSIDE PEARESWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL, PEARESWOOD ROAD

TUESDAY 25/OCTOBER/2016  1000-1100  FOREST ROAD CAFE

If there are any issues that affect you or you have any information you feel we may need to know, please come and see us. All information is dealt with in the strictest confidence. If you have no issues or information, come and see us anyway! Our phone is working now but please remember it is only on when we are at work and is only for information purposes, so please leave a name and number if you call us and we don't answer. Alternatively we can be reached via email on NorthendSNT@met.police.uk. If you need to see police always dial 101 for non emergencies and 999 for emergencies. All dates and team information will be loaded onto our website over the next couple of days. Access the site by clicking here.

It would seem that the Near Field Communication (NFC) "tap and pay" security exploit I described in February of last year is now being employed in real life. The hack, which utilises weaknesses in the encryption and transport of data between a smartphone and an NFC reader is now being reported by the BBC News website here. This potentially can mean that a user paying for goods or services by "tap to pay" with their mobile telephone could end up with money being taken from their bank account by unauthorised persons. Well, you heard it first from me, over a year ago. Contactless payment is fraught with potential danger - after all, it was only around six months ago that the bug in the UK authorisation was fixed - whilst payments in Pounds Sterling via tap and pay are limited to a maximum limit of £30, the same limit did not apply to other currencies. If a fraudster used captured tap and pay credentials to extract money, the sky was the limit if the exploit was undertaken in Euros or Dollars, for example. That has now been (finally) fixed, but only after a very long delay. I won't use any form of contactless payment - the system is just too full of security holes. I returned my tap and pay debit card and was issued with a non - NFC one instead (banks will issue you with a "vanilla" card, but you usually have to ask for them especially - many banks are sending out NFC enabled cards by default nowadays). 

Bexley is Bonkers author Malcolm Knight has been giving extensive coverage to the utter hash that Bexley Council has made of the restructuring of Bexleyheath Broadway, amongst other areas. In fact if memory serves, his blog began after a series of interactions with the Highways department of the council, and his very unfavourable experiences as a result. Now the Police have become unwittingly involved – after a rather nasty crash on what is now locally being called the “Magic Roundabout” – at the junction with the Broadway and Albion Road which is covered in variegated tiles – the original roundabout on the site was removed, and the subsequent section of road is now neither a junction, a crossing or a roundabout, but a sort of mixture of all three which is both everything and nothing at the same time. The number of collisions and near misses that have resulted from this poorly thought out change have sky rocketed. This week a Police car was involved in a collision with another vehicle, right in the middle of the very confusing turning. You can read all about the incident on the News Shopper website, by clicking here. It would seem that local residents and local paper readers are pretty much unanimous in their condemnation of the highway changes, which are judged to be confusing, dangerous and unnecessary.

It is not very long now until the open day at the Erith Quarry development. The following press release has been made by Grayling - the public relations consultant to London and Quadrant and the Anderson Group - the joint developers of the new housing estate:- The Quarry Erith invites locals for first glimpse with a family fun day:- "To celebrate work being underway, and to offer the local community a first chance to view the site, The Quarry Erith team would like to  invite families and locals to join them for an action-packed family fun day on Saturday 15 October from 10am to 4pm. Located off Carlton Road, the Culture and Community day will offer a food fair with locally-sourced treats and free children’s entertainment including a nature trail with children’s TV personality Jess French, animal face painting, a mini-mining experience, selfie station and creature crafts. There will also be an opportunity to meet the team and find out more about The Quarry’s transformation into an exceptional eco-development of at least 600 new homes and a state-of-the-art primary school. Councillor Linda Bailey, who will be opening the event, commented: “I am really pleased to be opening The Quarry Community and Culture Day. This event looks like it is set to be a really fun day for families with a host of activities that kids will love. It is also going to offer the community a first glimpse of the exciting future this development is offering Erith, which I am certainly looking forward to seeing.” The Quarry is a joint venture by L and Q and The Anderson Group, and represents a shared vision to create inspiring communities that offer residents a better way of living. Cathy Lloyd, Sales and Marketing Director at L and Q commented: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming the local community to our Culture and Community Day. The Quarry has played an important role in the lives of local people for more than a century and we’re keen to celebrate this, as well as providing lots of free, family-friendly activities.” Ahead of the event, The Quarry Erith team is also encouraging locals to share their historical photos of the site for inclusion in a public exhibition and art project. Visitors are encouraged to bring their photos along to the event or share via email to info@thequarryerith.co.uk. This is a ticketed event. To secure your place, and pre-book a slot, please register by clicking here or contact info@thequarryerith.com. Limited car parking is available on site. Please indicate if you require parking by emailing the address above. Prospective homebuyers interested in finding out more about The Quarry can register their interest at thequarryerith.co.uk and follow developments on Facebook and Twitter." I will be going along to the event with my camera - I am booked for the 10am session should you want to come along and say hello.

The end video this week shows one of the Rotative Beam Engines in operation at the Crossness Pumping Station - a Grade 1 listed industrial building. The beam engines, which are possibly the largest remaining rotative beam engines in the world, with 52 ton flywheels and 47 ton beams. The whole pumping station was the brainchild of superb Victorian engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Joseph Bazalgette lived from 1819 to 1891 and was one of the most distinguished Civil Engineers of the period. After considerable experience on railway projects he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855, having previously been in the employ of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers.The ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, when the Houses of Parliament became so smelly that the members demanded action, was the starting point of the sewer system as we know it today. Bazalgette built 83 miles of ‘interceptory’ sewers that prevented raw sewage from running into the Thames and took it to the east of London where it could be put into the river with minimal effect on the population. This system involved three major pumping stations, at Abbey Mills (in the Lea Valley), at Deptford, and at Crossness on the Erith / Abbey Wood marshes. Whilst the building remains at Abbey Mills, the pumps and engines were removed earlier this century. However, at Crossness the spectacular building and the engines and pumps they contain remain as a monument to Bazalgette’s genius in solving London’s problems. In addition to his achievement in establishing an effective sewerage system for the whole of London, Bazalgette was also responsible for the Thames Embankments, for Battersea, Hammersmith and Putney Bridges, and many other of London’s capital projects, including the Woolwich Ferry. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.