Dobbin and chips?

The photo above shows the M.V Shetland Trader - a bulk freighter that plies its trade on the River Thames past Erith on an almost daily basis. You may have seen photos of the ship featured on the Maggot Sandwich in the past. I took the photo above recently whilst the Shetland Trader was moored on Erith Pier. You can see a member of the crew engaged in some painting and maintenance duties - not much fun when the weather is currently so cold and windy.

You may recall that a few weeks ago I wrote about the level of unpaid crossing fees that have already built up since the Dartford QEII Bridge and tunnel converted from physically collecting tolls from motorists via a series of toll booths, to a new ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology, whereby a high definition camera will record passing number plates, compare them to a database and charge the owner of the vehicle accordingly. This week the News Shopper are reporting that Bexley Police have begun a campaign to educate local residents about number plate theft. On Thursday they visited a number of locations around the Borough, including B and Q in Lower Belvedere, Harrow Manor Way in Thamesmead, and the BP Connect garage in Northumberland Heath. The Police teams gave away anti – tamper number plate screws free to visitors. Some crooks physically steal number plates so that they can evade things like the London congestion charge and the Dartford crossing toll. This is a crude, but very effective form of identity theft. Other crooks look out for vehicles that closely resemble their own, and make a note of the number plates. They then get copies of the plates made up – plate blanks and lettering are easy to come by if you know where to look – I have even seen whole number plate making “turnkey” systems for sale on EBay, albeit not in the UK. This is a major issue – hundreds of false plates are in circulation, and the onus is on the legitimate owner to prove identity theft, rather than the other way around. Often many people don’t realise their plates have been duplicated until they get a letter in the post accompanied by a fine for non – payment of charges. I foresee this becoming an increasingly serious issue, and it will not be long before the popular press pick up on the story. It will only take a celebrity or senior politician to get sent a fine or summons for prosecution due to their vehicle ID having been hijacked before the tabloid press will be all over the story.

There have already been some consequences regarding the changes in the train services on the North Kent Line. Apart from the lack of trains into Charing Cross, the planners at the Docklands Light Railway have decided to increase the number of DLR trains outside of rush hours on the Woolwich Arsenal to Canning Town branch. They are effectively doubling the number of trains on off – peak times on the Bank to Lewisham via Greenwich line, so that travellers should not have to wait more than five minutes for a train at any time. This can only be a good thing; the downside to all of this is that DLR staff are likely to go on strike from the 28th January for two days – I don't fully understand their complaints, but it seems to me that the withdrawal of labour is a fairly drastic move, and usually means that communications between the parties in dispute has failed. For many hard pressed commuters, it is very bad news, myself included, as I spend a great deal of time working in Canary Wharf, as do thousands of other people, all of whom will be inconvenienced by the action. Personally since the trains are all computer controlled, I don't see why that don't just run without their normal supervisor, who seems to be not much more than a glorified ticket inspector anyway. I have more trust in the computer to operate the train than I do in a human. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

You may have read in the popular press that certain car insurance companies are refusing to insure certain models of vehicle, the most widely known model being the latest Range Rover. The reason they cite is that crooks have cracked the digital keyless entry system on the upmarket off – roaders, and crooks can just walk up to the cars and drive away – the hack involves a device that mimics the electronic key fob, not only unlocking the doors, disabling the alarm and the immobiliser, and even starting the engine. I understand that Range Rover are currently investigating, and it is said that a recall of certain affected models for a firmware upgrade on their security systems is imminent. This is a bad state of affairs, but it would seem to be limited to a small number of vehicles from a specific car maker. Things are possibly going to get a whole lot worse though.  American security analyst Corey Thuen has discovered a state of affairs that could make the Range Rover security vulnerability look like small change. You may be aware that a number of UK insurance companies offer reduced premiums to drivers who have telematics “Black box” devices installed. Black box insurance works when your car is fitted with a small 'black box' device, about the size of a smartphone, which records speed, distance travelled and the time of day or night that you are on the road. The device also assesses your driving style by monitoring braking and cornering. It will also record the types of road on which you typically travel, and the times of day and night you tend to drive, to build up a comprehensive profile of you as a driver.  With a device fitted to your car you can access a website to find out how you are performing in each category. This will show you if you need to make any changes to your driving style, and will provide tips on how you can improve your driver score and bring down the cost of your insurance. As a rule of thumb it is assumed that driving fewer miles on less dangerous roads, while also limiting night time driving, will result in lower premiums. Policies linked to black box recorders charge premiums on a monthly basis, which means the insurer can adjust them swiftly to reward better driving (and punish those who show themselves to be a risky proposition). Aside from privacy concerns (personally I find the concept of being monitored via satellite repugnant, but I know many do not share my worries). The telematic devices may suit younger drivers – indeed I understand that some insurance companies will only issue policies to newly qualified drivers if they have a “black box” installed – at the driver's expense. In the USA there are over two million telematic monitoring units installed on vehicles, and it is likely that in the next few years they become widely spread all over the world. The problem is that the devices currently in use are extremely vulnerable to malicious interference. Corey Thuen said  “The firmware running on the black box is minimal and insecure. It does no validation or signing of firmware updates, no secure boot, no cellular authentication, no secure communications or encryption, no data execution prevention or attack mitigation technologies… basically it uses no security technologies whatsoever.” A skilled attacker could almost certainly compromise such telematics black boxes to gain remote control of a vehicle, or even an entire fleet of vehicles. Once compromised, the consequences range from privacy data loss to life and limb; also, there is the attack vector of progressive backend infrastructure. If those systems are compromised, an attacker would have control over the devices that make it out to the field. In simple terms, we have seen that cars can be hacked and we have seen that mobile cellular communications can be hacked.” Privacy of data within cars is also a growing concern, one highlighted by Thuen’s research. BMW this week said it had repeatedly been asked by technology companies and advertisers to hand over the data their cars generated, but it has refused to give in to those requests. Thuen said it would be possible to intercept data passed between the black boxes and the insurance providers’ servers, likely including location and performance information, as they do nothing to encrypt or otherwise protect the information they collect. From my research, unless the telematics companies and to a lesser extent the car manufacturers take data integrity and security more seriously, it is only a matter of time before there are disastrous consequences. I predict that hackers will compromise whole fleets of vehicles, demanding cash ransoms to release vehicles from their control, in a very similar method to the current spate of “ransomware” that has affected many PC’s – a remote hacker encrypts a users’ files, then demands a fee to release the encryption key. I don't see any difference between a desktop or laptop PC and a car – indeed modern cars have as much if not more processing power than a home PC, so the analogy is sound.

My observations last week in respect of the changes made to the Southeastern Trains service into London on the North Kent Line have inspired a response from regular Maggot Sandwich reader Paul Thomas, who writes:- "Interested in your comments on the changes to the train services along the Greenwich line and your comments regarding the platform alterations. When the Thameslink Programme(as the alterations caused by the works at London Bridge are called) was first mooted it was envisaged that the Greenwich Line would lose many services during the 4 year building programme. This has not happened to the extent that was originally envisaged, although the fact that trains from Erith run exclusively to Cannon Street is a pain for me personally as I used an early morning Charing Cross train. Getting to Cannon Street after work at night is also an inconvenience, but there really was no alternative to severing the link that allows Greenwich Line trains to cross the tracks as a new dive under is being created in the space the cross over occupied. These new lines will help the movement of trains and ease conflict of movement that currently cause delays on the approach to London Bridge. The platform extensions were done at the time they were simply because the engineers were available to do them at that point. The UK has a chronic shortage of civil engineers and the work has to be planned many years in advance. Network rail is already planning projects for the period 2019-2024, and seeking requests from rail companies, local councils and Government for infrastructure enhancements for 2025-2030. Crossrail is also using many engineers, as are many other civil engineering projects such as the alterations to the Dartford Crossing. The longer platforms were generally expected to accept 12 car trains from 2018/19 when The Thameslink Programme is complete. Once all these new works are complete and 12 car trains introduced and Crossrail starts from Abbey Wood, travelling along the Greenwich line and reaching Central London will be much easier and smoother. With regard to Woolwich Dockyard Station; The first carriage of the train cannot be inside the Tunnel if selected door opening is to be used as the driver needs to see the on-platform cameras for safety reasons. It was closed during the Olympics as the special timetable run during the events meant that in order to run the extra trains more capacity was needed and by not stopping at this much underused station precious minutes were saved. Hope this info helps a bit". Very interesting insight - and thanks very much for sharing it with everyone. Much appreciated. If anyone else has information that you feel others might find of interest, please get in touch with me - you will get full credit, or can be anonymous as you so wish.

I have written on several occasions in the past about the situation in respect of unwanted ponies and horses that seem to about around Erith and Thamesmead (in fact the problem exists in many parts of the country). The problem is that there is a glut of animals which has in turn depressed the market to the point where they are now practically worthless. Only on Monday this week a foal was discovered in a water and mud – filled ditch in St. Thomas Road, Lower Belvedere. Despite the best efforts of the Fire Brigade, the foal died, most probably from Hypothermia. It is thought that the animal had probably fallen into the ditch the night before, and had spent all night in sub – zero temperatures. It was only when a passer – by noticed the foal in the morning that anything was done – albeit too late. The problem is that as the animals have no monetary value, their owners have little incentive to care for them. Some economists have suggested that if horse meat was more widely eaten in the UK, the large number of unwanted ponies and horses would have a monetary value as food; this ironically would ensure that many of the beasts would be better cared for. Personally I have no problems with eating horse – it tastes not dissimilar to steak, and is very low in saturated fat – what do you think – would you be averse to a portion of Dobbin and chips? Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Guest contributor Dana Whiffen has written a very engaging piece on a band with local connections that teetered on the brink of major league stardom in the 1970’s. "Remember “Something in the Air” by Thunderclap Newman? John Speedy Keen was a friend and driver for Pete Townshend of The Who, Pete had recognised his songwriting skills and even included his “Armenia City in the Sky” on The Who Sell Out Album. Such was Pete Townshend’s admiration for Speedy’s song writing that he brought together with Keen two other musicians Andy Newman and Jimmy MCCulloch at the end of 1968 and they became known as Thunderclap Newman. They went into the studios in January 1969 with Speedy Keen on Vocals, guitar and drums, Andy Newman on piano and Jimmy McCulloch on lead guitar and Pete himself playing bass guitar and they recorded what was to become an iconic song titled “Something in the Air”.  It went to number one in the UK single charts holding off both Elvis and The Beatles from the top spot where it stayed for 3 weeks. Something in the Air was originally written for The Magic Christian film and by the end of 1969 it had sold 1 million copies being awarded a gold disc and was to later be used on soundtracks for The Strawberry Statement and Easy Rider CD deluxe edition and later in 2000 used in the film Almost Famous and in 2008 in an episode of My name is Earl and it continued to earn Speedy Keen a lot of money from royalties. Following on from the records huge success was the demand to see the band live, in order to perform they needed to add additional members so in the second half of 1969 they were joined by Jim Avery on Bass Guitar and Jimmy’s elder brother Jack McCullock on drums and they undertook a 26 tour date of the UK including playing THE BLACK PRINCE in Bexley Kent in a concert for Erith College Rag week. Due to Pete Townshend working on the next Who album “Tommy”, both Thunderclap Newman’s  “Hollywood Dream” their Townshend produced album and follow up single “Accidents”  were both delayed. This meant that the band lost important ground in a competitive music market and they failed to capitalise on the success of “Something in the Air” and by the time they were released , both failed to make their mark on the charts with “Accidents” only making number 44 and the album only 163 out of the Billboard top 200 chart. Speedy’s song writing talent was evident but he lacked the will to tour and upset his other band mates but either turning up late for rehearsals or not at all, because of this after their first UK tour both Jack McCulloch and Jim Avery left the band and they were replaced by Australians Ronnie Peel (bass) and Roger Felice (drums). They went onto to appear on TV programmes “How late is it” Top of the Pops” and “Beat Club” in Germany, and they toured the UK again in March 1971 and went on to tour Scotland  in March and early April 1971 again supporting Deep Purple on the UK  dates as well as in both tours of Holland and Scandinavia. Friction in the band mainly caused by Speedy’s low work rate and lack of motivation especially caused problems between him and Andy and reached an all time low and on returning to the UK in mid April they split up, just prior to being part of a 12 week package USA tour with Marsha Hunt and The Who, missing out on a chance to break into the USA market. Jimmy McCulloch had been recognised for his superb guitar playing and he went on to play with many bands including John Mayall, Stone the Crows and Paul McCartney’s Wings before his premature death at the age of 26 in 1979. Andy Newman went on to record a solo album titled “Rainbow” and also play on Roger Ruskin Spear’s (formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) first solo album as well as touring with him. In 1973 Speedy released a solo album titled “Previous Convictions” with included Jimmy McCulloch and Roger Felice on some tracks, he also released another album in 1975 titled “Y’know wot I mean” but neither had much impact on the charts. Discouraged he tried his hand at production working on punk band “Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers first album LAMF in 1977 and also on Motorhead’s first album before quitting the music industry; he died at the age of 56 in 2002. With more recent increasing interest in Thunderclap Newman’s music,  In February 2010 Andy Newman resurrected Thunderclap Newman with new members Tony Stubbings on bass guitar, Nick Johnson on lead guitar, former Big Country drummer Mark Brzezicki and Pete Townshend’s nephew Josh Townshend on guitar and vocals, they went on to support the Big Country tour of the UK in 2011 releasing a CD titled “Beyond Hollywood”. Both former members Jack McCulloch and Jim Avery are still in touch with Andy Newman today". A fascinating story – thanks to Dana for writing such an interesting piece.

I noticed something on my way to Erith Station earlier in the week. A few years ago, many cars and people carriers would have stickers, usually in their back window with announcements like “Baby on Board” and “Show Dogs in Transit”. I gather the reason for this was that in the event of a serious accident, the emergency services would know to look for an occupant on the rear seat or parcel area of the vehicle. It did strike me that to have such a sticker in one’s car would be rather self – serving and self-important. I was not the only person to form this opinion; satirical magazine Viz printed spoof stickers reading “Dog’s Eggs in Transit”. Ahem. I notice that nowadays these stickers seem to have entirely disappeared. I don't know if others have observed the same issue?

Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association have just published the following announcement that may be of interest to local readers. Shopwatch is a Neighbourhood Watch scheme, originally set up as a trial in Bexley Village, it is works via an email loop (sharing of information) between Neighbourhood Watch, the shops registered and their local police team. We heard of various stories of distraction theft even from charity shops in the Village and were also aware that shops either end of Bexley Village were unaware of what was happening. Under this scheme "ShopWatch" all registered shops which is most of them were kept informed of crime trends and also let us know of any incidents so that all information could be shared and this saw a significant fall in shop crime in the Village. Because of its success and the eagerness of other Police Teams to see this rolled out in his areas/wards shops we have since worked with them to increase membership to a wider area in different towns in the Borough. We have now enrolled most shops in The Oval Parade Sidcup, Blackfen, Wellington and Blendon Parades, Mayplace Road East, Crayford Town Centre, Northumberland Heath-Erith and Welling with membership now well over 250 shops, we plan to continue to include other shopping parades throughout the Borough in 2015. Our most recent ShopWatch alert has seen information passed on about a shoplifter with a full description of person. ShopWatch is our latest non-residential schemes, which we run in addition to HoundWatch (Dog Walkers registered members walking their dogs report suspicious people etc) PlotWatch (fighting against allotment crime), FaithWatch (combating crime in and around places of worship), and finally HorseWatch for Stables (here they have had theft of saddles etc). If you would like to become a member of any of the schemes mentioned or alternatively you would like to set up a Watch in your road/area/block please contact us at the following;-

Telephone: 0208 284 5537
Email: bexwatch-office@btconnect.com

The end video this week is a sequel to the piece of historical video that I featured a while back that was compiled by local history enthusiast Martin Barnes. It shows all sorts of activities centred in and around Bexleyheath Broadway over the last hundred years - do give it a watch and let me know what you think - leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Captain Tweed versus the fly - tippers from Hell.

My imaginary crime - fighting alter - ego "Captain Tweed" has had an outing this week. As some long - term readers will know, I run "Erith Watch" - the largest, and one of the most successful Neighbourhood Watch groups in the London Borough of Bexley. The group has had a number of recent successes; unfortunately most of them cannot be recounted here for legal and other reasons. One event that happened back in September 2013 has finally come to fruition, and the story can now be told. One day I was walking from Pewty Acres to do some evening shopping in Morrison's supermarket. As I crossed James Watt Way, I could see a large van parked round the back of the recycling centre in Morrison's car park. A couple of figures were unloading some large wooden pallets - I could not make out exactly what was on the pallets, but the stench was awful - like a cross between strong ammonia and acetone; it was truly stomach churning. I stealthily approached the fly tippers from the blind side of the van - and was able to read and memorise the van's registration number. I saw them continue illegally dumping their stinking cargo, and realised that there was little more that I could do at that time. I quickly made my way to Morrison's and went to the customer services desk, where I got a piece of paper and a pen to write down the registration number before I forgot it. As soon as it got light the next morning I went back round to the recycling centre and took the photo you can see above - which shows two tonnes of rotten bananas on the dumped pallets, with the liquid they released as they decomposed clearly visible in the culvert to the right of the photograph (it had not rained for several days at that point), along with several others that I then passed along to a contact I have with Bexley Council Environmental Crimes Unit. For operational reasons the person is keen for me not to reveal their identity, as I understand that they occasionally undertake undercover surveillance of certain suspects. For a long time, nothing seemed to happen - I did make a statement regarding this incident, and another that occurred some time later involving the same individuals and van. The Environmental Crimes Unit placed a surveillance camera in the area surrounding the recycling facility, and caught the same perpetrators a number of other times, as well as a number of other people illegally dumping waste. I was on standby to attend court in September 2014, but the two individuals absconded and were reported to have returned to Romania. On Tuesday evening I got an Email from my contact, and it made my week, if not my year. You can read the full report on exactly what had transpired on the Erith Watch website here. Do feel free to leave a comment, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. Suffice to say that Erith Watch will continue to covertly patrol the mean streets of Erith, helping the Police and other authorities to keep order, and also to try and foster a stronger sense of community amongst residents.  Neighbourhood Watch can really make a difference; I just wish I was able to tell you some of the other stories; maybe in time.

The changes to the North Kent railway line went into place this week; trains are now no longer running into Charing Cross, and from my understanding this is permanent, not just until 2018 when the works to update and refurbish London Bridge station are complete. The tracks that link London Bridge to Charing Cross are being removed permanently, so travellers from Slade Green, Erith, Belvedere and Abbey Wood will now have to use alternative routes if they wish to travel to the West End by public transport. On top of this, the promised twelve coach trains which were originally designed to compensate for the reduction in frequency of service are now not going to make an appearance. It appears that even though nearly two years of work was undertaken by contractors on behalf of Network Rail to extend the length of the platforms on most of the stations on the North Kent line specifically to allow them to take twelve coach trains, this will actually not be happening; the longest trains on the line will continue to consist of ten coaches. The reasons for this seem unclear and somewhat confused. I have heard two explanations. Firstly that South Eastern have been unable to source sufficient extra rolling stock from other sources, and secondly that they had forgotten that the platform at Woolwich Dockyard station is only long enough for a ten coach train, and cannot be extended due to tunnels at both ends of the station. This sounds like the issue that was discovered when Networker trains were due to replace the old “slam door” coaches. It was all fine and good until the Networkers got to Woolwich Dockyard, but they were too big to go through the tunnel between Woolwich Dockyard and Charlton. The old slam door trains had to be reintroduced whilst time consuming and expensive alterations were made to the tunnel. There are alternatives when only one station on the entire line is incapable of accommodating a full twelve coach train – you can either close the station outright (Woolwich Dockyard is apparently the least busy station between Dartford and Cannon Street) as was done during the Olympics and Paralympics (the cynics at the time said that it was really to prevent international visitors seeing what a dump Woolwich Dockyard was, but I digress). Alternatively they could stop the twelve car trains at Woolwich Dockyard, leaving the front and rear carriages still in the tunnel, and have an announcement that passengers wanting to get off the train would need to walk through to the next carriage. This is done on the Docklands Light Railway, where Cutty Sark for Greenwich station has exactly the same issue. Passengers have to walk along the train to get off – it is a bit confusing, especially for the large number of tourists who use the service, but overall it seems to get by.  I get the feeling that Network Rail and South Eastern are going to have a lot more problems over the next three and a half years whilst the complete reconstruction of London Bridge Station and the associated rail infrastructure is carried out. I am fortunate that much of the time when I have to use the North Kent Line to get into London, I am able to travel outside of the peak busy periods, but those less fortunate have my sincere sympathies.

With all of the terrible news that has come from France in the last week or so, I have overheard conversations where people are wondering if something similar could happen in the UK. Unfortunately the answer is “yes”, and think it is a question of when, rather than if. It is then somewhat disturbing to discover that the current radio communications system that is used by the Police and emergency services is only a short time away from becoming redundant, when the current emergency services system, which uses TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) is switched off. TETRA is halfway between a mobile phone system and a walkie talkie. It is an ancient technology and very poor at mobile data, which runs at 7.2kbs. There is a standard upgrade to boost that to 700kbps but it has never been implemented. Instead the plan is to replace it with 4G. The replacement system should have been implemented back in 2009, but due to (alleged) political interference the project has not been rolled out. The cost of the new technology Airwave contract has spiralled to £1.2 billion at a time when public service budgets are being cut back. Each handset will effectively cost nearly £2,000, even though a decent Android phone handset equipped with nearly identical technology can be bought for less than £100. The plan to move to 4G sounds sensible but the people who actually use emergency communications have deep reservations. While Airwave does support full duplex (two way communication at the same time, as with a mobile phone), one of the most important features the emergency services want is push-to-talk, a walkie-talkie like service. And that is where the focus of making mobile fit for use by the emergency services has been. What is often not appreciated by the mobile community is the issue of latency. Anyone who has used a walkie-talkie knows that the instant you press the button the person at the other end can hear you. There is no delay other than the constraint of the speed of light. Mobile phone push-to-talk systems are rarely like this. You press the button, it switches to the right app, fires it up, makes an IP connection and then starts the communication. This is not instant. Indeed, using such a system where you can see and hear the other person is un-nerving, with a significant delay that is more than an echo. Even a traditional 2G or 3G voice call has a little latency which you can hear if both people are in the same room. Push-to-talk latency isn't a problem in the “it might replace SMS” scenario the mobile industry once envisaged for it, but it is in an emergency. The classic example the Armed Forces give is to imagine a commander who has a team of snipers on a roof pointing at a target. He gives the command: “Don't shoot”. Unfortunately, in a cellular, IP based device, it takes a fraction of a second for the app to fire up and make a connection – a fraction of a second which is just long enough for the word “Don’t” to fail to make it into the message. Obviously this is just not good enough in a critical situation such as a terrorist attack as we have just seen in Paris. The other problem with any emergency communication system using 4G technology is that coverage of the country is patchy and uneven, with some areas having no signal whatsoever. Even if the emergency service personnel can get a 4G signal, you can then add to this the problem that with 4G there are other users on the network: ordinary customers, who, given that they are in the middle of an emergency, will want to call their mum or post a video of the incident to YouTube. There are systems in place to give emergency services priority, but network congestion is still going to affect the ability of the backhaul infrastructure to cope. All in all the situation is a mess, and could not really have come at a worse time. Industry insiders say that as the contract signing for the new 4G system is not scheduled until after the general election, it will probably get "kicked into the long grass", the existing Tetra system will be retained under an extension clause in the contract for at least another three or four years, despite the huge technical limitations to the legacy system. All in all not an ideal situation. 

Erith Town Forum will hold its 100th public meeting on January 28th 2015. The following guest article was written by the chair of the Forum, Doreen Ives. In 1998 the Government introduced “Capital Challenge” an initiative seeking to promote wider community involvement in decision making.  Under this umbrella the Erith Consultative Group run by local residents, was changed into Erith Town Forum In the early days we had some young people from the Ocean Park Estate joining the meeting to let us know what they felt was lacking in Erith and the seeds were sown for the Youth and Family Centre in West Street.  A supermarket in the town was high on the Forum’s agenda and when Morrison decided to build their southern flagship store here, a great cheer was heard, although very few of us knew what Morrison’s stores were like since they were mostly sited in the north of England.  There is no doubt that this was the kick-start for the Town’s regeneration with the refurbished pier taking pride of place. Unfortunately it took a long time and many heated meetings before the rest of the Town was brought back to life.  Much time and effort was put in to ensure the new Health Centre was built but with the loss of the market, a valuable retail attraction, all the remaining shops suffered.  Whilst Forum continued to press for overall regeneration, we looked for smaller benefits too, like better security and things to brighten up the town. We succeeded in getting CCTV, some tree planting, hanging baskets throughout the year and lights and community events at Christmas time.  We even had our own skating rink to brighten one Christmas. The Forum joined in celebrating when the first blow was struck on the concrete car park and Carey’s began their transformation project to produce Riverside Shopping Centre and of course we buried our Time Capsule in the walkway.  We worked with the Shopping Centre’s Public Relations Company in planning the “Jumping for Joy” opening celebrations, with members of the Erith Playhouse representing characters from Erith’s proud history.   When for the first time, fears that Erith Museum might be closed we were there to support the volunteers in their effort to make sure this didn’t happen. Erith has much history and the Town Forum decided that particular buildings should have identifying plaques.  We had the plaques put up and with the help of local historians we compiled a Town Trail leaflet and placed an information board on the Riverside Gardens with a map identifying those special buildings. The information Board was partly funded by Erith Rotary to mark their centenary year.  (The leaflet is available in the library, pick one up and do the walk).  We also ensured that the mural on the old swimming pool was not lost to the town. The need to engage with young people and promote positive behaviour was discussed many times and out of this came the TriForum which was a combination of Erith, Slade Green and Belvedere Forums all wanting to offer free sport and entertainment during school holidays.  Whilst the Council provided us with some funding, we continued to provide these activities free of charge to local children. Addressing ourselves to the older members of the community, Erith Forum organised free Christmas afternoons of entertainment, high tea and bingo for 140 senior citizens. We also joined with the embryo Bexley Accessible Transport scheme to take 40 seniors to the seaside for the day.  Again free of charge.   Sadly once regular funding was withdrawn by Bexley Council all these community activities had to stop. A major role for the Forum is to keep residents informed about new initiatives that will impact on their lives.  Initially this was done by speakers coming to our meetings, and our quarterly newsletter “TOWN AND AROUND” We had a circulation of 4000 copies. With improved communication methods, so the internet is now used to pass on information.  Our close working with Council officers during the early years meant we were part of decisions on  artworks in the town, we are particularly proud of the improvements to the Theatre, the Mural on the White Hart, the Fish, and the repositioning of the Erith Swimming Pool Mural, more recent additions to those previously mentioned. Once the Council funding was withdrawn, we looked towards charities to keep us going and were lucky to get grants from the William Kendall Wax Chandlers and the Awards For All Scheme. However Town and Around finally became unviable and so the internet had to take over. We were fortunate to get funding from the Riverside Shopping Centre on a regular basis which helped pay for our administration and the cost of holding regular meetings and finally for the last three years we have been fortunate to have funding from Cory Environmental.  We helped to promote and support FORGE who have made significant improvements to the Riverside Gardens and the foreshore, demonstrating to Bexley Council how valuable this green area is to our community. We have continued to promote Erith whenever possible with events, mainly using the River front.  We re-enacted the arrival of Alexander Selkirk at Erith Pier to celebrate the 300th anniversary of this event. In 2013 the last Thames Barge Race finish at the Erith causeway was marked by an afternoon of fun and games on the Riverside Gardens.  It was so successful that in 2014 we decided to do it all again. We called it ERITH FUN DAY and invited charities and small businesses to participate.  It was a great success, and Rotary Club Erith have agreed to take primary responsibility for organising this event in 2015.  Of course Erith Forum will take part and help to get in funding for the event.  Our Town and surrounding area has changed beyond all recognition since the first meeting of Erith Town Forum and the makeup of our community is very different. Therefore Erith Town Forum continues to have an important part to play in promoting community cohesion, by providing, an opportunity for the exchange of views, and information about local developments, together with social activities. Thanks Doreen - fascinating stuff. If you wish to become involved with Erith Town Forum, you can get more information from visiting their website here.

It seems that something good may actually come of the recent fatal stabbing of Olamide Fasima in Wolvercote Road, Thamesmead on the 14^th October. The News Shopper have reported that the Metropolitan Police are creating a new dedicated, ten officer strong unit to patrol the whole of Thamesmead. As both I and Malcolm Knight of the Bexley is Bonkers website wrote at the time, the two wards Thamesmead East and West will be no more – instead Thamesmead will become one ward overseen by the new policing team, whose remit will concentrate on drug and gang related violence – often one and the same thing. This is excellent news; I for one could never understand why for policing issues Thamesmead was divided in two, with the Western side falling under the control of Greenwich, and the Eastern half falling under the remit of Bexley Council. This to me always seemed like the worst of all possible worlds, as whenever an issue in respect of policing arose, doubts would spring to mind as to which of the two wards were responsible, and in the event of uncertainty or dispute, inevitably the two boroughs would point the finger at the other. Revising the ward boundaries to make Thamesmead one single, large police district makes eminent sense, and I wonder why it was not done before? With ten officers dedicated to the ward, I think there is a very good chance to fight back against the drug dealers and muggers who up until now have felt that they had free reign over the town. The only fly in the ointment is that it apparently took a murder before the new police squad was set up. Thamesmead has a lot of potential to transform from a rather mixed area of high – rise flats and low rise housing that has been dogged by crime, deprivation and poverty issues for the last forty – odd years into a desirable town with the arrival of Crossrail; juggling the maintenance of affordable accommodation with the inevitable forces of gentrification will be a challenge, but with luck many of the residents of Thamesmead will benefit in the long run. It would seem that the hope that the new housing in Abbey Wood and Thamesmead would be a sustainable mix of affordable social accommodation, alongside properties for outright sale is probably not going to be reflected in reality. A story broke this week, initially in The London Evening Standard, and shortly thereafter in The News Shopper. The Abbey Tower – a part of the forthcoming Close Quarter development which will be adjacent to Abbey Wood Station, is being advertised to investment buyers in Hong Kong. The estate agents who are commissioned with selling the thirty flats in the nine story block are making a special feature of the fact that the development is “a fully private block with no social housing”. They are selling the flats on the basis that in a few  short years the Abbey Wood Crossrail terminus will be open, making the area more attractive to London commuters. There are a number of problems in promoting the Abbey Tower abroad – not least of which is it is likely that a significant number of the flats will be purchased but not lived in – effectively “land banked” by wealthy foreign investors who expect the prices to go up so that they can sell at a profit later. Other apartments in the block will be rented out to wealthy tenants from outside of the area, meaning that locals with more modest means would will not stand a chance. I think that a degree of “gentrification” (a phrase I detest) is inevitable, and in itself not necessarily a bad thing – wealthy new residents need to shop, and some of their money should filter into the local economy. This has however not proved to be the case to much of an extent in the Woolwich Royal Arsenal Development in Woolwich however; very few of the wealthy residents ever venture into Woolwich Town Centre, even though it is only across the road from the gated development. Instead they shop for groceries online, and catch the ferry over to Canary Wharf to do their shopping. It seems to be a sad fact that the wealthy seem not to wish to integrate with normal local people – I presume they worry that they will be mugged or stabbed, or both. Unfortunately recent activity in Abbey Wood / Thamesmead would seem to support this concern. I am sure of one thing though – Bexley Council will encourage as many high net worth people to move into the area as possible – they want the council tax money, and encouraging developers to build high density accommodation in the area is one of the most effective methods of the Council generating extra revenue – this may well be the reason why they did not insist on any social accommodation in the Abbey Tower development. They seem to be keen to turn the area into the most intensive cash - cow possible, to the detriment of the local residents - a good example of this is the closure of the Belvedere Splash Park; sources indicate that Bexley Council will also close Belvedere Library, and the adjacent recreation park in Woolwich Road in order to sell off the land for property development - again so that they can rake in thousands in council tax to feed their supporters in the wealthier South of the borough. You can join the campaign to save Belvedere Splash Park by clicking here.

I am not a fan of Microsoft; whilst they might be a giant of a company, I feel that their products are quite often not as good as some of their smaller competitors. They also have a history of dubious business practices that I will not expand on here – you can always do a web search if you wish to learn more on the subject. Nevertheless they do form a major part of most people’s lives – a majority still use Windows based computers (though now the move is more to accessing content via mobile devices such as tablets and phones). Pretty much anybody who works in an office environment uses Microsoft Office. There has been much controversy in the last couple of years over Microsoft and their apparent inability to listen to their customers. This was epitomised in the row over the user interface for Windows 8. Windows 8 was primarily designed to work in a touch – screen environment, and few if any concessions were made to users who were still using a keyboard and mouse. Many private users, along with businesses complained, but Microsoft did nothing. Online forums and platforms such as Twitter were filled by the moans of dissatisfied techies and ordinary users alike. Microsoft did nothing until the sales figures started coming through – people were “voting with their feet” and buying PC’s with Windows 7; businesses were opting for “downgrade” packages which would enable a Windows 7 installation to replace the Windows 8 build that the machine shipped from the factory with. Eventually and with some pretty bad grace, Microsoft published Windows 8.1 – an update to the operating system which reintroduced most of the keyboard and mouse specific features that consumers and businesses so wanted. So far so good. The trouble has been that Windows 8 / 8.1 has now a tarnished reputation, and the sales have never recovered to the levels that Microsoft expected. Rather than continue digging when already in a hole, Microsoft have to their credit taken a step back and engaged with their customers. The end result of this is that the next version of Windows will not be called Windows 9; in order to underline how not like Windows 8 / 8.1 the next operating system will be, they are skipping the number nine and going directly to Windows 10. Early pre – release builds of Windows 10 have been available to developers and other IT professionals for a little while now – the screen capture above (click for a larger view) shows Windows 10 and the return of the Start menu that so many users wanted back. For those technically minded Maggot Sandwich readers, Windows 10 64 bit Preview Edition is running on my Apple iMac in a virtual PC environment using Oracle VirtualBox – there is no way I would allow any pre – Beta version of an operating system direct access to my hardware by actually installing it – virtualisation means if the OS goes bang, it cannot take any data on my hard disk or backups with it. To be honest, Windows 10 seems like it will be fine – and a big improvement over the last debacle. No doubt time will tell – the final complete version of Windows 10 is due to ship sometime in the Summer of 2015. Feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The end video this week is a bit of fun; it features the Cosmotron - a retro - sci-fi designed car. What is not made clear in the short film is that the chap that owns this one of a kind vehicle lives in Bexleyheath. If you watch closely, you will see them drive it past the rear of the Bexleyheath Broadway Shopping Centre, along Albion Road. Look out for it - I am sure it will appear on the odd occasion.