Casey Jones.

Work progresses on the White Hart in Erith High Street - the photo above was taken just before the scaffolding was erected to cocoon the building before the next phase of restoration and conversion work got underway earlier this week. The recreated frontage is definitely starting to come together, and to my mind should end up being almost indistinguishable from the original. 

The mystery of the tracked digger that I reported and photographed last week in the Erith Riverside Gardens has now been solved.  I was contacted earlier this week by FORGE (Friends Of Riverside Gardens Erith) who explained that the Council are carrying out work on the gardens.  They are digging up all the large bushes and re-planting with low growing shrubs.  This is to have a better view across the gardens to the river. This was agreed last year between the Council and FORGE. The large bushes were making a barrier between the pavement and the gardens and people were not encouraged to go into the gardens. The Council are also gradually re-vamping all the other beds on the gardens. This is very encouraging news - the gardens are the jewel in the crown of Erith, and the only place in the whole of the London Borough of Bexley where you can get direct access to the River Thames. It is a lovely place to sit and watch the ships go past on the river, and to watch the world in general go by. There has been long held distrust by many local residents that the council would try to sell off the land to a developer to build expensive riverside apartments, but that fear now seems to be unfounded. FORGE also reminded me to let readers know that FORGE and Thames 21 have arranged another Clean-Up Day along the Thames foreshore and gardens which will take place on SUNDAY 15th MAY from 9am to 12.30pm.  The Army Cadets (who love pulling trolleys out of the water!) will be volunteering on the day and anyone who would like to help would be welcome to come along. You can see a short video film about the work of environmental charity Thames 21 below. 

You may recall how last week I described an encounter that I had experienced with a gambling addict outside a Paddy Power bookmakers shop, and how bemused it left me feeling. Well, since then I have had an opportunity to carry out some research into gambling, and into Paddy Power in particular, and my studies have left me further alarmed - things are actually worse than I had previously surmised. I also encountered the same individual again yesterday, and I feel that you would find the details interesting. I was heading up to visit my mother on the 99 bus from Erith, which I was able to pick up from a stop not too far from Pewty Acres.  One thing that I deliberately omitted from my account of the gambling beggar last week was that the chap involved was in an electric wheelchair; I did not feel that his physical disability had any bearing on the story, but now I feel that perhaps it has. I was travelling on the 99 yesterday, as mentioned when I noticed a man in his mid 50's in an electric wheelchair in the pram / wheelchair area adjacent to the rear set of doors. I made sure that I did not obstruct him, and sat near to the back of the bus; at this stage I was in "auto pilot" mode, and did not connect the individual with the encounter of the previous week. When the bus arrived at my stop, I discovered that it was also the getting off point of the guy in the electric wheelchair. I stood to one side to allow him off the bus first, as the driver extended the bus ramp. Once he was successfully off, I followed him onto the pavement, then overtook him as I walked along the pavement; I then heard him call out to me, which was the point when I recalled our previous encounter - he asked me once again for money, which I once more ignored and carried on with my journey. Later I saw him in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere, successfully asking for cash from a number of passers by. He is genuinely disabled, but he does "milk" his condition as a means for gaining sympathy from passers by as he begs for money with which to feed his gambling addiction. I would strongly suggest not giving him any cash, as no good will ever come of it. This links into a piece I wrote earlier in the week, which now has added relevance. Last year, The Gambling Commission issued a report analysing ways in which Paddy Power exploited a man with gambling addiction to the extent that he lost five jobs, his home and access to his children. The company also failed to perform sufficient checks to ensure customers were not using its betting machines to launder the proceeds of crime. The betting regulator said Paddy Power would make a voluntary payment of £280,000 to a “socially responsible” cause following its findings. Paddy Power admitted that senior staff encouraged a man with a gambling problem to keep betting despite warnings by more junior employees. The man, referred to only as Customer A, was a frequent user of fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which have been referred to as the “crack cocaine” of gambling. The machines allow customers to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds on games such as roulette and blackjack, for which the odds are fixed. I have previously written at some length about the dangers of these machines, which the government refused to ban, or limit both the stakes and the level of payout after pressure from the gambling industry.  In May 2014, Paddy Power staff became aware that Customer A was working five separate jobs to fund his gambling and “had no money”, The Gambling Commission said. Although he claimed to be comfortable with his level of gambling, shop staff passed their concerns up the chain to senior staff, who advised monitoring him. Later that month, the shop manager informed a more senior member of staff that Customer A would be visiting the shop less frequently. The senior employee responded by advising that “steps should be taken to try to increase Customer A’s visits and time spent in the gambling premises”. “This was grossly at odds with the licensing objective of preventing vulnerable people from being exploited by gambling,” said The Gambling Commission. The report went on to say that the shop manager “recorded some discomfort” about the senior employee’s advice, according to the commission, and staff later noticed that the customer was “spending heavily and looked unwell and as if he had not slept for a while”. He was only advised to seek help for gambling addiction in August 2014, when a staff member met him on the street and learned that he had lost all of his jobs, was homeless and had lost access to his children. The Gambling Commission also detailed two cases in which Paddy Power failed to apply money laundering controls designed to stop people using betting terminals to conceal the proceeds of crime. Criminals can use games such as roulette to launder money at a small cost, gambling experts said. For instance, someone with £100 in cash could place £48 on black, £48 on red and £2 on green, or 0. The maximum they could lose would be £4, at which point they could ask a bookmaker to put the remaining £96 on their debit card. The money would then appear as a legitimate payment from a bookmaker, hiding the fact that it could have been cash from a criminal enterprise. The Gambling Commission said that in August 2014, a shop manager suspected that Customer B, a longstanding user of Paddy Power shops, was using gambling facilities to launder Scottish bank notes. The manager related their suspicions to more senior members of staff on four occasions over six months. But senior staff “repeatedly overruled” the shop manager, saying that as the notes were British currency and were not stained or counterfeit, it was unlikely that the money was being laundered. None of the suspicions were reported to the company’s money laundering reporting officer. Paddy Power only barred the customer after police raised fears that Scottish banknotes that were the proceeds of crime were being laundered in London. it would seem that the News Shopper has picked up on my one man crusade against Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT's) in their latest edition, they describe some of the misery the terrible machines can inflict. The paper writes that:- "More than 230,000 gambling sessions a year where consumers lose more than £1,000, according to figures by the Gambling Commission, with 650 leading to losses of more than £5,000. One of the main reasons for these staggering individual losses is because FOBT machines have a much higher maximum allowable stake. The maximum is a £100, which marks them as a significant anomaly among high-street gaming machines. Unless you were to go to a specialist casino, every other widely available machine has a maximum £2 stake. Organisations are now stepping in to put pressure on the Government to help protect people with gambling addictions and to save them from throwing vast sums of money into these machines. John White, BACTA chief executive, has spearheaded the campaign to shine a light on the financial and social destruction gambling can cause. BACTA president Jason Frost said: “Fixed-odds betting terminals are a hardcore form of gambling, entirely unsuitable for everyday high-street venues. With stake limits at £100, 50 times that of any other widely available gaming machine, they allow consumers and at-risk gamblers to rack up huge losses.“As the Gambling Commission’s figures show, the vast majority of everyday punters who are making major losses are doing so at these addictive betting shop machines at higher stakes. They endanger consumers, foster a culture of violence and aggression, and undermine the whole amusement industry’s work to create a socially responsible environment for gaming that puts player protection first. We urge DCMS to do the right and necessary thing and order a substantial reduction in FOBT stakes.” In response the immoral and (to my mind, borderline illegal, and certainly immoral) Association of British Bookmakers (who strike me as little more than a front for organised crime) said in response that "This is a deeply flawed report, funded by vested interests who would directly benefit if its recommendations are ever implemented. The report is the view of a tiny group of anti-betting shop MP's . This group has been financed by those with interests in the casino, arcade and pub industries. This group of MPs has operated in secrecy, provided no transcripts of the evidence given to their meetings and operated throughout behind closed doors away from public scrutiny". Personally if I had any say in such things, I would seriously restrict the abilities of betting shops and online casinos, with no stake allowed to be greater than £2, and no payout to exceed £100. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I do wonder how much longer free daily London newspaper City AM can survive. The paper is given away by distributors outside of major train stations such as Woolwich Arsenal, but I have noticed that a vast majority of commuters ignore this and instead opt for picking up a copy of Metro. The readership figures for these two free morning papers seem to reflect this; according to Wikipedia, City AM gets around 94,000 readers each day, whereas Metro gets around 1.4 million. This figure is somewhat distorted by the fact that Metro is available in several other parts of the country, whereas City AM is only distributed in Greater London. Nevertheless, with advertising revenue tanking for many printed papers, even with City AM’s demographic (wealthy city workers, bankers and the like) it is unlikely to attract much in the way of advertising bearing in mind the very low readership numbers.

I know that a fair number of Maggot Sandwich readers are Radio Amateurs, or radio enthusiasts of one kind or another; the next story is pretty much aimed at this audience. As I have mentioned in the past, I am in the market for a new H.F transceiver and I have been looking around at the various options available to me - currently the Icom IC 7300 is looking as a likely winner. Historically there have been two main amateur radio dealers in the South East; Martin Lynch and Sons in West London, and Waters and Stanton in Hockley in Essex - as you can see in the photo above - click on it for a larger view. I would say that they are the two biggest, longest established and best stocked dealers in the country, and they both advertise heavily both online and in the amateur radio press. I have used both companies in the past, and have had very good service from both. Now it seems that a very undignified war has broken out between the two retailers, after close to forty years of a relatively peaceful coexistence. News recently broke that Waters and Stanton were merging with Nevada (a ham radio retailer / wholesaler based in Portsmouth), and InnovAntennas (an antenna supply firm) to form a new company called IHSG. The result of this is that the long established Waters and Stanton shop in Hockley, Essex closed last Friday and the entire enterprise relocated down to Nevada’s HQ in Portsmouth. Peter Waters G30JV, CEO of the former Waters and Stanton recently wrote:- "Yes it is now official. IHSG is the largest retail outlet for Ham Radio and Hobby Electronics. So what does it mean for the ham radio enthusiast? This new Group has more active radio hams than any other retail outlet. That in itself is very important. Whether deciding what to buy or wanting some technical advice, you need to talk with a fellow enthusiast who is sympathetic to your needs and understands your questions. IHSG are not box shifters whose only concern is to take your money and move onto the next customer. We offer the kind of service that we ourselves would expect, and hope for, if we were buying ham radio gear. More and more customers are now buying mail order, either by telephone or via our web site. This makes sense because it usually means that you receive your order the next working day and don’t waste time in traffic jams or spend money on fuel. Of course we welcome customers into our showroom with free car parking outside and a warm drink inside. The Group’s size also means that you will get the best Casey Jonespossible deal because of our buying power. And as we have more agencies than any other retail outlet, we are able to match or beat prices. This is of course good news. We also operate the largest part exchange and buy back service in the UK. And if you wish, we can arrange to pick up your used equipment”. The bad blood between Martin Lynch and Sons and (now) IHSG is unpleasant; I understand that there have been claims from IHSG that certain Martin Lynch and Sons employees have been telling their customers that Waters and Stanton have gone out of business (technically this may be true in a sense – that they have merged to form a new organisation, but the intent was apparently to convey the message that they had gone bust, which is not the case). IHSG have threatened legal action, and have also published a warning that certain Yaesu equipment purchased from an unnamed amateur radio retailer was old stock that has been sitting in a warehouse for a year or so. Whilst the company is not named, the guilty party is implied. I can understand that Martin Lynch being rattled by the company merger – they have gone from being roughly equal in size to Nevada and Waters and Stanton to being the smaller retailer – and thus likely to lose market share. Personally, I have no axe to grind with any of the organisations mentioned, but it does concern me that undignified bickering between market leaders in the amateur radio field can only bring the technical hobby into disrepute. I have always been of the opinion that when in business, if you have nothing good to say about your competitors, say nothing. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

A story that may well affect a lot of local people is currently proving to be controversial. The News Shopper have reported that Southeastern  trains on the Dartford to London via Greenwich line may in future only call at Cannon Street, and not at London Bridge, Waterloo East or  Charing Cross. This may also prove to be the case on the Bexleyheath line. Reaction to this unwelcome news has been swift. Teresa Pearce, MP for Erith and Thamesmead, said that the proposals significantly underestimate the number of new homes being built in south-east London.  “This flawed consultation on the future of the service is based on incorrect information and massively underestimates the number of new homes to come in the local area and the number of people who will be using the service in the future. Failing to assess the service level needed accurately will only exacerbate the problems and leave rail users paying more and more for less and less.” Fellow MP David Evennett said Southeastern have “Let my constituents down. The train services from Bexleyheath and Crayford into central London have been extremely bad. There are constant delays, cancellations, overcrowding, and a severe lack of information from staff.  Southeastern and Network Rail have let my constituents down, and there have been too many excuses.  I raise the issues with the Rail Minister, Southeastern, and Network Rail regularly yet things do not improve so I welcome the consultation on a new franchise.  There must be greater cooperation between the operator and Network Rail to deliver more rolling stock and better reliability, and I therefore support the proposals to ensure they work together as one team with a focus on performance.  However, I strongly oppose the suggestion to reduce the number of terminals that can be reached from Bexley, and believe the services to Charing Cross and Victoria are essential”. On top of this, it would appear that the new housing figures that Southeastern have used in their calculations of the reduced service are wildly inaccurate. They used a figure of 38,000 new homes over the next five years, yet when Teresa Pearce questioned the figure with the Department of Transport they revised the number of new houses upwards to 68,400. Teresa then commented “I am not confident that the future demand for rail services in South East London is being fully considered and consulted on, and if they have made mistakes on this, what else have they made mistakes on? This proposal would drastically limit the choice and options for rail users in my constituency and across the South-East. It would significantly increase journey times, and would lead to major problems of overcrowding and further pressure on already busy interchange stations like Lewisham”. It does seem to me that we as commuters are being charged more and given less in return. No wonder the calls for Southeastern to lose the local rail franchise are now so loud.

The coverage of the potential changes and reductions in the number of London railway stations that may be serviced by Southeastern Trains reminds me of a horror that used to exist at several London stations. There was a period in the 1980's when British Rail ran a series of fast food outlets called Casey Jones Burgers. The restaurants were located at the major rail stations such as London Bridge and Charing Cross. The burgers were quite indescribably vile; they certainly bore absolutely no resemblance to the paragon of great burger - ness featured in the advert above. They were actually composed of greasy, gristly, zombie flesh - like cold grey meat on the outside, and lava hot in the middle so that molten cheese scalded the roof of your mouth like dairy based napalm (I think they microwaved the burgers). Rumours abounded when the Casey Jones opened at Charing Cross, all of the feral pigeons that plagued the station concourse suddenly disappeared. It was all very coincidental. Fortunately Casey Jones did not last too long, and eventually Burger King took over their station locations. they are now nothing other than a distant memory. If you have any recollections of Casey Jones Burgers, please get in contact and let me know.

The staff cuts to the News Shopper are now very obvious; what used to be a well – written and intelligently edited local paper has now sadly declined into a shoddily assembled set of cut and pasted press releases that covers an area from Twickenham and Richmond down to well past Gravesend – hardly local – more regional. I don’t blame the staff – what is left of them. They have been cut to the bone, and have little choice in the stories they run – anything that can be posted without needing to visit a site or interview a witness will be done. Instead of taking photos of locations on site, they now use screen captures from Google Street View. The amount of advertising and tracking software on the News Shopper website is astounding; even with a very fast fibre broadband connection and a fast computer, the website is extremely sluggish and off-putting. Popular items such as the PubSpy reviews were dropped in September of last year, as this requires a reporter to physically visit a location to undertake the review. I fear for the future of the once mighty local newspaper.

I ought to add that this next story is not some kind of late April Fool's piece, just in cast it reads that way. You may have noticed that a number of domestic appliance manufacturers are adding the capability to be web enabled to some of their high end devices. This has proved to be more of a liability than a benefit in many cases. Upmarket German domestic appliance maker Miele have been identified as producing a dishwasher that has a serious and unpatched vulnerability that could leave it open to hackers. Yes, you read it correctly - a dishwasher that connects to the Internet. The dishwasher has a fully featured web server installed on it, and the web server has a number of pretty basic vulnerabilities that have not been patched. The upshot of this is that the dishwasher is vulnerable to what is known as a Directory Traversal Attack. These attacks let miscreants access directories other than those needed by a web server. Once they are in those directories, it is party time, because they can insert their own programming code and tell the web server to execute it - thus completely taking over the dishwasher, and potentially any other devices in the home and beyond that the dishwasher is able to communicate with. It is unclear which libraries Miele used to craft the Web server, which means without a fix from the vendor – for a dishwasher – the best option is to make sure the appliance isn't exposed to the Internet. Because Miele is an appliance company and not a pure-play IT company, it doesn't have a process for reporting or fixing bugs. Aside from this consideration, I think we should look at the bigger picture. Until we have self loading dishwashers, how can they need internet access? We don't run them until they are loaded. Humans load them. Once they are full, we set them off. If we don't want them to clean the dishes straight away, they have a "delay" feature so we can run them when the Economy 7 has kicked in / while the sun's up and our solar panels are providing the electricity. Humans put the salt, detergent tablets and rinse-aid in. Needing internet access to order more rinse-aid etc when it is running low is (until the manufacturers can be trusted with anything sharper than a crayon or warmer than a cushion) a decidedly sub-optimal path. So why on earth do we need internet enabled dishwashers? "Because we can" is a valid human argument for scaling Everest (for those humans so inclined/capable) but letting household appliances loose on the internet "because we can" (rather than "because we need to") is lazy, foolish and to my mind pointless.

The following announcement has been made by the North End Safer Neighbourhood Police Team:- "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 APRIL 2017 are listed below.

WEDNESDAY 12/APRIL/2017  1200hrs  SLADE GREEN LIBRARY
TUESDAY 18/APRIL/2017  1030hrs  FOREST ROAD CAFE
THURSDAY 27/APRIL/2017  1500hrs  OUTSIDE PEARESWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL, PEARESWOOD ROAD
FRIDAY 28/APRIL/2017  1500hrs  OUTSIDE SLADE GREEN PRIMARY AND HABERDASHERS SCHOOL, SLADE GREEN ROAD

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".

Something that I have observed and written about in the past has been independently confirmed. Bexley is officially one of the most improved boroughs when it comes to restaurant and takeaway food hygiene in the country. You may recall that I originally bemoaned the awful state of food hygiene, not only in the borough, but specifically in West Street, Erith, which at one point had the lowest overall "Scores on the Doors" ratings of anywhere in the whole of the UK. Now that has all changed - very much for the better.  Which? magazine found that the chance of a consumer buying from a food business that is not meeting hygiene standards is as high as one in three in 20 local authorities. The consumer group analysed data submitted to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) by 386 UK local authorities and ranked those local authority areas, focusing on those considered high risk such as hospitals, care homes and schools, and medium-risk businesses such as a local restaurant or takeaway. Four London local authority areas - Newham, Ealing, Lewisham and Camden - were all ranked in the bottom 10. The five most-improved local authority areas since Which? last carried out its analysis two years ago are Bexley, Sunderland, Stockport, South Cambridgeshire and Barrow-in Furness. Erith's very own "proper" restaurant - the Riverside Fish and Steak has just got its very first "Scores on the Doors" rating, and to nobody's surprise it passed with flying colours and scored an outstanding 5 stars out of 5. 

The ending video is a time lapse recording of the Woolwich Ferry, from early in a winter morning until around midday. See what you think. Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The digger.

Mystery surrounds the photos above, which I took on Thursday. I had received an Email from a long time reader and occasional contributor, who mentioned how he had been told by others that an excavator had dug "massive holes" in the Erith Riverside Gardens, and did I know anything about it? I ventured round to the gardens to investigate. I certainly found a large, tracked digger parked on top of one of the flower beds, but I found no evidence of any holes being dug, or indeed of any work having been carried out at all. No workers were on site, and the digger was locked up. I then walked across to the Running Horses car park, where the site offices for the Quadrant Construction development of the old swimming baths site are located. I had a chat with the Site Manager, who was very pleasant and helpful. I had wondered if the digger was something to do with them? It turned out not; the manager was just as mystified as I. He told me that he guessed that it was council contractors, and that they had been on site on Wednesday, but nothing had been seen of them since. I checked the Riverside Gardens yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, and the digger had been moved a few metres, but no additional activity had taken place, and no holes had been dug. The mystery deepens. If you have any information regarding the mystery digger as pictured above and below (click on any photo for a larger view), please let me know. Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The controversy over the proposed electoral boundary changes in Bexleyheath shows no signs of abating; The Boundary Commission has proposed a new Woolwich constituency which would include four wards from the Erith and Thamesmead constituency and St Michael’s and Lesnes Abbey wards from the London Borough of Bexley. The proposals also include an Erith and Crayford constituency, which includes four wards from the Erith and Thamesmead constituency, and six wards from the Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency. Local paper the News Shopper have reported that MP David Evennett, objects to the proposals. He said recently:- “I have objected to the Parliamentary Boundary Commission proposal to place St Michael’s Ward in the new Woolwich constituency, as historically and geographically there are no links between the two areas. I have urged the Commission to think again, taking into account the strong community ties St Michael’s Ward has with the towns of Welling and Bexleyheath. I am also concerned about plans to split Bexleyheath across three Parliamentary constituencies, and I believe the town of Bexleyheath should be recognised in the name of the new constituency. In conclusion, Bexley is formed by a collection of communities, which include Bexleyheath town, Thamesmead town, Erith town and Belvedere village. These are valued by residents across our borough." What do you think? In a recent survey, 88 percent of Bexley residents objected to the proposed boundary changes, on top of which many even objected to being located in a London borough, and who instead wanted to be part of Kent. This makes me wonder - would Bexley be better off seceding from the United Kingdom and becoming independent? There is a precedent, albeit a very old one. At one point what is now the London Borough of Bexley was an independent kingdom, ruled by Æthelberht, King of Kent from about 589 until his death. The eighth-century monk Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, lists him as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the late ninth century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle he is referred to as a bretwalda, or "Britain-ruler". He was the first English king to convert to Christianity. Æthelberht was the son of Eormenric, succeeding him as king, according to the Chronicle. He married Bertha, the Christian daughter of Charibert, king of the Franks, thus building an alliance with the most powerful state in contemporary Western Europe; the marriage probably took place before he came to the throne. Bertha's influence may have led to Pope Gregory I's decision to send Augustine as a missionary from Rome. Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet in east Kent in 597. Shortly thereafter, Æthelberht converted to Christianity, churches were established, and wider-scale conversion to Christianity began in the kingdom. He provided the new church with land in Canterbury, thus establishing one of the foundation stones of what ultimately became the Anglican Communion. Æthelberht's law for Kent, the earliest written code in any Germanic language, instituted a complex system of fines; the law code is preserved in the Textus Roffensis. Kent was rich, with strong trade ties to the continent, and he may have instituted royal control over trade. Coinage probably began circulating in Kent during his reign for the first time since the Anglo-Saxon invasion. He later came to be regarded as a saint for his role in establishing Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons. Æthelberht died on 24 February 616 and was succeeded by his son, Eadbald. His feast day was originally 24 February, but was changed to 25 February. So we have been an independent kingdom before - do you think it would work again? What do you think - home rule for Bexley? Leave a comment below. or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The photo above was taken by a regular Maggot Sandwich reader earlier this week. It shows the flower beds adjacent to the footpath that runs on the outside of The London Southeast College (what used to be Bexley College before it was taken over) in Walnut Tree Road, Erith. As you can see there are hundreds, if not thousands of discarded cigarette butts all over the flower beds and pathway. These have come from the students, who congregate outside of the building during break times in order to smoke. What concerns me is that students at the college are largely in the 16 -18 age range. In the eyes of the law this makes them still children. The college has a duty of care towards its students, which includes caring for their health and wellbeing. Smoking has been banned for anyone under the age of 18 since 1994; I want to know why the college are not doing more to prevent students from smoking through both a campaign of education, and the enforcement of punishments for those who ignore the legal ban? Minors are specifically prevented from smoking in any public place under law. Why this law is not being rigorously enforced by staff at the college is a mystery to me. If you have any insight into this issue of concern, then please contact me. This has been highlighted at a very opportune moment, just as the laws relating to smoking are being tightened and rewritten; new measures being brought in now include include packs of 10 no longer being available as well as some flavoured tobacco and smaller packs of rolling tobacco. The laws actually came into force last May but suppliers and shops were given a year to get rid of old stock and adjust to the changes. The full ban will fully come into effect from May 20th, 2017. Menthol cigarettes are also being phased out and will be completely gone from shops by 2020. This is because the are regarded as a "gateway" to other forms of cigarette. The cheapest packet of cigarettes will cost £8.82 from May 21st. The gradual phasing out of menthol cigarettes will begin; Cigarette packets are set to be plain with only a graphic image showing the impact of smoking on people. Some flavoured cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco, including fruit, spice, herbs, alcohol, candy or vanilla, will be made illegal. You will not be able to buy smaller packets of cigarettes such as packets of 10. Smaller bags containing less than 30g of roll up tobacco will also be banned. Amanda Sandford of anti smoking charity ASH said in a recent interview:- "Cigarettes are already expensive and the price increase of cigarettes is a key factor in making people quit smoking. So by removing the packet of ten cigarettes this means people will have to find that extra money for a packet. It will hit poorer smokers harder, who are usually younger smokers. Paying £3 or £4 for a packet of ten cigarettes at the moment might not seem so much to people and still leave them with change in their pockets. But when you have to spend £6/£7, even £9, people may think, 'Do I really need this packet?'"

Bexley residents are going to have to use a new method to book a car parking space. The new service is known as RingGo - with which you book your car park via a mobile phone application. When you come to park, you’ll have to provide the location code (a five digit number shown on signs near the parking bay) and say how long you want to park. RingGo can be downloaded or drivers can go online to www.RingGo.co.uk to pay, however, a charge of 20p is added each time you use the service. The council claim that by using RingGo drivers won’t have to save up change, hang around in the rain or cold, trek to and from the machine, or put a ticket on the dashboard Users can also be reminded by text message when parking is about to run out and top up wherever they are, reducing the risk of a penalty charge notice. But the cost of a reminder text is 10p. Apart from the additional cost over and above the conventional way of paying for a parking ticket, I can see a number of additional drawbacks. I feel that the onus will be on the poor motorist to prove that they have indeed paid for their space when the parking warden comes to check and the system has incorrectly recorded their details. It also presupposes that all car park users will have a mobile phone. Whilst a majority will, not all may. Fellow local Blogger Malcolm Knight and I share a number of things in common, one of which is that neither of us owns a mobile phone. For me, it is not just a question of actively disliking the things, it is purely that I have no use for one. I rarely use the landline phone at home, let alone any other potential phone device. Perhaps the most common reason people give for having a phone is safety. For the vast majority of us there is no empirical foundation to the idea of phones as essential to our security. That myth depends on something psychologists call the "availability heuristic". Our minds focus on unusual, dramatic possibilities: the broken-down car on a dark and lonely highway; a health emergency where immediate contact is essential. But in reality those scenarios are extremely rare — rarer, no doubt, than accidents while texting or muggers preying on distracted phone users. Focusing on them leads to biased assessment of risk, which, in turn, contributes to a biased assessment of smartphones' utility. Let us not forget that despite the perks, mobile phones have serious downsides, which I have outlined in the past. Experts have even coined a term for phone separation anxiety — nomophobia. Some of it, experts say, comes from the thought of facing big fears — criminals and car breakdowns — without a phone. But I've also been told about subtler anxieties, over "wasted" events that might go unphotographed, uncommunicated, unquantified, as if reality depended on digitization. There's even a pathological aversion to plain old boredom. What if a few minutes waiting for a friend becomes insufferably dull? Owning one, like owning a video game system, has benefits and drawbacks, and I'm convinced there's no reason for me to need or desire a mobile phone. It is all about personal liberty; you are free to own and use a mobile phone, and I am free to choose not to. 

I was walking through Erith Riverside Shopping Centre on Tuesday afternoon when I saw a man coming out of the Paddy Power betting shop. He then approached me and asked me if I could spare 70p? I paused for a moment to allow for the absurdity of the moment to sink in, before I walked away without saying anything. The guy obviously had a severe gambling problem, but his total lack of self awareness astonished me. Why is it that confrontational beggars always ask for a specific amount of money? Do they think it will make them more credible to potential donors? I have had beggars come up to me asking for money for a train fare, but when I offered to accompany them to the station to buy them a ticket, they got abusive. It is the same situation when travelling by train or tube, where you get the career beggars working their way along the carriage. They ask for money - yet how did they afford the fare to get on the train in the first place? Of course they did not, and they are riding illegally, a fact which seems to escape some fellow passengers. 

Hall Place is the only stately home in the London Borough of Bexley, built in 1537 for Sir John Champneys, a wealthy merchant and former Lord Mayor of London. The house was extended in 1649 by Sir Robert Austen, a merchant from Tenterden in Kent. The house is a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, and surrounded by a 65-hectare award winning garden. It is situated on the A223, Bourne Road, south of Watling Street (A207) and north of the 'Black Prince' interchange of the A2 Rochester Way and the A220. Hall Place has the River Cray running through its gardens. The River Cray is an important freshwater river in the borough; it used to be the home for a large population of water voles, but these indigenous wild creatures are under threat from a number of sources. A recent report by the Canal and River Trust analysed water vole sightings dating back as far as 1970, and found that they were seen in only half as many locations in the past fifteen years as they were in the thirty years before that date. Between 1970 and 1999 water voles were spotted at 53 locations along nearly 270 miles of waterways managed by the trust; between 2000 and 2015 there were water vole sightings at 38 locations covering 141 miles. The decline in water vole population has continued, despite an investment of £500,000 since 1980 in forty projects designed to protect them from predation by American Mink, who were introduced into the British countryside when animal rights protesters illegally released them from fur farms. Water voles are one of the most endangered species in the country, and are fast becoming a rare sight on Britain’s canals and rivers. Non – indigenous mink are one threat, but another, less well known creature is an even greater threat to British Water Voles. In the last twenty years, the American Signal Crayfish has spread like wildfire in British waterways. The creatures, which look like mini lobsters, and are typically 6–9 centimetres (2.4–3.5 in) long, although sizes up to 16–18 cm (6.3–7.1 in) are possible. They are bluish-brown to reddish-brown in colour with robust, large, smooth claws. They have a white to pale blue-green patch near the claw hinge, like the white flags that signalmen used for directing trains—hence the name. The Crayfish burrow into the banks of the river, destroying Water Vole homes and causing the banks to crumble. The infestation of American Signal Crayfish has affected many of the fresh water courses in the UK. The little critters are very difficult to eradicate, as they breed quickly and produce around 200–400 eggs  after mating in the autumn, and are carried under the female's tail until they are ready to hatch the following spring. The eggs hatch into juveniles, which pass through three moults before leaving their mother. Sexual maturity is reached after two to three years, and the life span can be up to 20 years. You have the worst combination – the creatures are quick to breed, long lived, and have no native predator. The American Signal Crayfish does have one key weakness however – once boiled, they are delicious to eat. It is quite legal to hunt wild American Signal Crayfish – all you need to do is to apply for a hunting licence from the Environment Agency. Most licences to hunt wild animals are quite expensive, and limit the size of the hunters bag to only a few animals, in order to limit the impact on the population of that animal. Tellingly, the Environment Agency website has an unlimited bag size and a free licence when it comes to hunting invasive crayfish. Once you have your hunting licence and officially approved design of trap (designed specifically not to trap Water Voles or Otters), you only need the permission of the land owner (who will almost certainly be more than glad that someone is willing to rid them of the infestation of the destructive species).  You can then trap American Signal Crayfish for your table – and you can feel that not only are you going to have a fine feed, but you will be doing the environment some real good in the process. 

First Top Gear imploded, and the three classic presenters moved to Amazon Prime where they made pretty much the same show under a new title of The Grand Tour, albeit with a massively increased budget. Now my second most favourite car show is also changing - Wheeler Dealers is losing genius mechanic Edd China after thirteen series. Officially Edd China is moving on to new projects, but the real reason is that the original British production company has sold the show to a subsidiary of the U.S Discovery Channel, and the U.S want to reduce the level of technical complexity and the detailed explanations of the engineering that goes into each classic car restoration, reducing the role of Edd to little more that a target for motor mouth Mike Brewer as the main presenter. In essence the new producers are seeking to "dumb down" the programme,  and make it into another scripted reality show. One commenter said:- "I only watched for Edd and his repairs and restorations. Unlike most Discovery channel 'reality', it felt genuine. Hats off to Edd, the first whiff of fakery and he leaves. That's integrity. We don't want more scripted 'reality' nonsense which Discovery pushes to our screens relentlessly. We need a real mechanic and enthusiast like Edd doing real things in the real world which we can share in via media. Thank you Edd, you're appreciated hugely". Car builder and TV presenter Ant Anstead will replace Edd China for series 14; I like Ant, and wish him well in the role, though I wonder how long he too will last if Wheeler Dealers becomes as "dumbed down" as is being threatened.

This week the Maggot Sandwich has a guest contributor, local resident and traffic campaigner Tony Fairbairn. As you may be aware, many local stories have multiple aspects to them, and the ongoing discussion regarding additional crossings of the River Thames to the East of London is certainly contentious. Tony writes:- "There are misconceptions regarding the overwhelming support for a River Thames road crossing at Belvedere. First the TfL survey population was about two million, of which only 4519 persons (Less than 0.5 percent) responded, from that result 77 percent approved a package of train, DLR, tram and road crossings at Thamesmead and Belvedere.  At Belvedere, the only option offered was a road crossing. The Mayor is proceeding with DLR and rail crossings at Thamesmead. The Belvedere road crossing has been put in abeyance but could remain a long- term option; However, readers should note only 4 percent approved a road crossing at Belvedere in isolation, possibly why is was put into the long grass. A crossing at Belvedere is essentially a duplicate Dartford Bridge and a link between the A13 in Essex and the A2016. We all know about the congestion problems at Dartford, but what is little known is that traffic levels on the A13 are five times higher than the A2016. An additional net daily inflow of 17,000 vehicles are estimated to enter Belvedere/Erith, these vehicles will either park in our area thus taking up valuable land (six parking places = one new home), or attempt to drive right through to and return later via the A2016, Bexley Road or the steep inclines of Belvedere towards the A2, and that is on a good day, imagine those days when we have a blocked Dartford or Blackwall crossing. 17,000 vehicles are equal to about an 80 percent increase of those already registered in North Bexley. In addition, North bound traffic of around 10,000 vehicles daily would also be seeking to cross Northwards at Belvedere. The parking spots they vacate would not be occupied by those arriving. That is a massive increase in polluting traffic and congestion that can only turn our environment into an urban sprawl as well as increasing the level of road accidents". Interesting stuff - what do you think? Are you concerned about increased pollution from larger number of vehicles in the area, or do you think it would provide economic stimulus to the borough? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I have written in the past about former local resident, and prolific inventor and businessman Hiram Maxim – inventor of the Maxim Machine Gun, the first person to fly a heavier than air craft, several years prior to the Wright Brothers, and the man that invented both the fire sprinkler and the sprung mouse trap. Maxim also invented the car exhaust silencer, and as an off – shoot (if you will excuse the pun) his son, the American inventor Hiram Percy Maxim, is usually credited with inventing and selling the first commercially successful model of gun suppressor circa 1902 (patented 30 March 1909). Maxim gave his device the trademarked name Maxim Silencer, and they were regularly advertised in sporting goods magazines. The muffler for internal combustion engines was developed in parallel with the firearm suppressor by Maxim in the early 20th century, using many of the same techniques to provide quieter-running engines (in many English-speaking countries automobile mufflers are still called silencers). Former president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt was known to purchase and use Maxim Silencers. So, it is not too much of a stretch to say that many inventions that we all take for granted were either invented in Erith or Crayford at the two Maxim / Vickers factories, or by people also living in the same area. We for example also had the first petrol – powered tricycle (the Butler petrol cycle), several years before the Benz automobile, which was tested along Manor Road, and the first submarine capable of firing a torpedo whilst submerged was created by the Nordenfeldt works, also located in Erith. The end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century were a real hot house of inventive talent in the local area – some of the most cutting edge engineering took place in and around Erith. I don't feel that we do enough to celebrate our strong links to key moments in the history of Britain. What do you think? Hiram Maxim had a rival in a chap called William Cantelo, who allegedly was the original inventor of the recoil operated machine gun. Cantelo was a Southampton pub landlord with a flair for mechanical engineering whose experiments with firearms in the extended cellar of his pub often caused consternation to both his regulars and his neighbours, though William Cantelo was highly secretive, as he realised the engineer who could invent an automatic, repeat firing rifle would make a fortune. Once he was confident that his machine gun was ready for the world, he packed several prototypes up and went off to market the weapon. That was the last anyone ever saw of him. Not long afterwards, Erith's own Hiram Maxim (born in America, but a naturalised Briton) started producing his range of Maxim Guns - touted as the first recoil operated machine gun, which were made at his large factory in Fraser Road, Erith - to this day the area is known locally as "The Pom Pom" - after the noise of the guns being tested on the range to the rear of the factory. Investigators have noticed that Cantelo and Maxim looked remarkably similar - and certain conspiracy theorists have had a field day in supposing what the connection between the two men was. The thing is, back in the late Edwardian period, most men over the age of thirty had large bushy beards - as did both Cantelo and Maxim, and a lot of their physical similarity would seem to be due to the beard element. Later, Hiram Maxim claimed that he had a double who was impersonating him, but this was never independently confirmed (Maxim was a bit of a showman, and fond of making Donald Trump - like sweeping statements, so this was nothing remarkable or at all unusual). Maxim was already a wealthy man, having the patents for the aforementioned fire extinguishing water sprinkler and the sprung mousetrap, amongst others. Personally I feel that the whole Cantelo / Maxim conspiracy is a fictional construct – Cantelo probably did what many adventurous entrepreneurs did in Victorian times, and emigrated to America (ironically the direct opposite of what Maxim did a few years earlier) – and then disappeared from history. The story makes a good yarn however.

The ending video this week dates back to 1985, and a BBC TV news piece on the then Snooker World Champion, Plumstead lad Steve Davis. In the 1980's Snooker was massively popular on TV; one of the reasons was that by this time nearly all sales of TV receivers were of colour models, whereas prior to this black and white sets had been more popular, due mainly to their lower purchase price and cheaper TV licence. The short TV article goes to Steve Davis's old Abbey Wood School and talks to contemporary pupils, and one of Davis's former teachers about both his time at school and his then dominance of Snooker. It is an interesting historical document.

The "No Phone" zone.

The photo above shows the Erith Mural. It is located next to the Kassiopi Cove children's soft play centre (what used to be the Blockbuster video hire store) in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre in Colebrook Street. The mural has nine panels depicting scenes inspired by the history of Erith, including the murder of Thomas A Beckett and the reign of Henry the VIII. The mural was designed and built by the artist William Mitchell between 1966 and 1970. The mural is constructed using an artistic technique called "Cloisonne" - which is similar to the production of stained glass windows. The mural was originally located on the side wall of the old Riverside Swimming Pool in Erith High Street, but was moved to its current location in the centre of the town just before the old pool site was demolished. 

Sky have launched their Ultra High Definition 4K satellite receiver, as I previewed a few weeks ago. The Sky Q service costs a not inconsiderable £54 a month for a new subscriber, plus a one – off setup cost of £299. On top of this, if you want Sky Sports there is an additional monthly fee of £27.50, and yet another £17 a month if you want Sky Movies. Totting this all up, it means an initial expenditure of £397.50, followed by a contractually obligated minimum of eighteen months payments of £98.50, which equates to £1773.00 over the duration of the contract.  I think that Sky may well be over – reaching themselves this time. If you were to use Freeview, along with subscriptions to Netflix (£7.49 a month) and Amazon Prime (£79 a year - £6.58 a month), the bill over eighteen months would come to £253.26, a saving of £1818.74 over the cost of Sky Q plus subscription, and the one off joining fee. I know that the content offered will not be quite equivalent – dumping Sky would lose a lot of live sport, but conversely the range of shows available on Amazon Prime and Netflix far outstrips Sky in every way, and on top of this there are no adverts – something that endlessly annoys me with Sky – why pay for a premium service, and still have adverts? Currently the two streaming services don’t offer 4K resolution, but many channels on Sky Q will still be in either HD or SD resolution, so it would not be the loss it might initially appear. I understand that Sky is already losing customers to their standard HD service due to viewers switching to the cheaper and better content services offered by both Amazon Prime and Netflix. I think that this will only accelerate over time. When Sky launched their original analogue satellite based service back in February 1989, there was no broadband infrastructure in the UK (or anywhere for that matter), as the World Wide Web had yet to be invented by Tim Berners – Lee. Satellites were the only economic method of broadcasting to large areas of the planet. Now the use of satellites for broadcasting is soon to go the way of using hot air balloons for air travel – yes you can still do it, but why would you bother? Fibre optic broadband is the way forward. Mark my words, the age of Sky using hugely expensive satellites to broadcast will soon be at an end; they will either change their operating model and switch to online, or they will slowly die. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

After the very unusual publishing of the last Maggot Sandwich update on Saturday, rather than Sunday last week, a couple of readers have asked me how I go about writing each update. The process normally begins as soon as the last edition “goes to press” at around 1pm on each Sunday afternoon. I keep notes of stories that may have relevance or interest to readers, and I keep a list of ideas written on a notepad; the actual content gets written gradually over the course of the week. I get the impression that some readers think I sit down and write the whole thing on Sunday morning, but nothing could be further from the case. What happens on Sunday morning is that I edit together all of the little scraps I have written during the week into what I hope is a readable and entertaining form. I add the active web links (a chore which takes well over an hour in itself), and I also run some final sense checks, including checking that any submitted content from a third party or guest writer does not break any rules of taste or copyright. Last week I had a rare failure in this respect – partly I think because of the rush to get the update “out of the door” on Saturday. I would like to apologise to Andy Doran as it is clear that I inadvertently used text from what I later found out was on his website. I get sent stories from all number of sources – P.R companies (more on them later) volunteer organisations, Maggot Sandwich readers and a number of trusted sources that wish to be anonymous. I had been sent a Word document with a well – written piece on the history of Mobo Toys from someone who has sent me stories before;  they declined to be a guest author, so I just grabbed the text from the file and uploaded it into Blogger. It turned out my source, or someone who passed it to her had scraped the text almost word for word from the D and S pedal car restoration website. My error was in not checking this before publication; my only defence is that I was in a hurry to get the update published a day early, and in doing so I skipped the “due diligence” I normally carry out.  I know what it is like to be plagiarised; a certain local paper (now no longer in publication) used to semi regularly nick not only my stories, but my photos too. So I can well understand the feeling this generates.

The photo above was taken by Richard of the Thamesmead Grump blog, when we met at the Bexley History Fair at Hall Place last Sunday. I am seated in the photo, talking to a visitor about the Friends of Christ Church Erith, of which I am a committee member. The event went well, but it has to be said that Hall Place was bitterly cold; even though the Friends stand was located next to a very underpowered radiator, which felt like it was possibly the only (barely) working one in the building. Thanks to the number of Maggot Sandwich readers who came over to say "hello" and to introduce themselves. If you would like to learn more about the Friends of Christ Church Erith, click here, and to learn more about our forthcoming "Our Erith" art exhibition, you should click here.

On Wednesday morning I was standing on the London – bound platform of Erith station when the automated announcement heralding the arrival of the next train stated “this service will comprise of four carriages”. For a moment I thought that I had heard incorrectly , but when the train turned up it was indeed composed of only four carriages – half the normal length. I got on, and when the train arrived at Belvedere, the driver came on the public address system, and announced that the trains was now going to travel non – stop to London Bridge station. About two thirds of the passengers, myself included then got off and waited on the platform at Belvedere Station. An announcement which had many passengers scratching their heads in disbelief “The next London bound train is cancelled due to greater than normal passenger numbers”. Eventually a very crowded train turned up, and I was then able to travel to Greenwich to pick up my connection via the DLR to Canary Wharf and the office. If this was not bad enough, on Thursday afternoon I had to wait over forty minutes for a train from Greenwich back to Erith, when there is meant to be one every ten minutes. There were a fairly large number of very inconvenienced and annoyed people. Southeastern Trains and Network Rail need to share the blame. The News Shopper has been giving them a hard time, as have several local MP's - with very good cause in my opinion. Teresa Pearce said "I have just one train line running through my constituency, two tracks, three stations, one train rail line, what could go wrong? Well, Southeastern could go wrong. Before Southeastern we had Connex and Connex was terrible and we thought Southeastern would be better and we were wrong. I have a real appreciation of the frustration of the what it’s like to stand on a platform in the certain knowledge of the uncertainty of the train service.” In the same News Shopper interview, Jim Dowd, MP for Lewisham West and Penge, said: “I join in the general wailing and gnashing of teeth about the service that is is allegedly provided by Southeastern, it’s not unreasonable to expect a reasonable service particularly in light of the amount of money they pay. I wish though Southeastern would put as much effort into running the trains on time as they do into providing some of the excuses for why they don’t.” Well said that man! More on Southeastern and their continual delays and cancellations later. 

There has been extensive coverage in the press this week as to how the major betting companies, and Paddy Power in particular have been exploiting vulnerable “high stakes” gamblers. Much of the problem with these high spending, big losers is not down to traditional bets placed on horses, dogs or football, but is instead due to an addiction to fixed odds betting terminals (FOBT), these are a kind of electronic gambling machine, with far higher odds than the traditional “one armed bandit”. A recent report makes for extremely troubling reading; it reveals that in the 55 most deprived boroughs in the UK – overwhelmingly located in Northern cities and urban Greater London have a  total of 2,691 bookmakers shops, in which £13 billion was gambled on FOBT machines, and £470 million lost by gamblers in the last year alone. In the same time period, there were 1,258 bookmakers shops in the 115 wealthiest areas, adjusted to cover the same volume of population, within which players gambled a total of £6.5 billion, losing £231 million.  The report was commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, and shows that the large betting companies have targeted the poorest areas that have the highest unemployment, lowest per capita income and higher crime rates. The last year has also seen a large increase in the number of high street betting shops, mainly due to the leap in the total number of FOBT machines, such as digital roulette in use. In December 2013 there was a total of 9,343 active betting shop licences in the entire United Kingdom, which was an increase of 280 since 2012. The most deprived town council in the UK was identified as being Liverpool. A total of £118 million was gambled in 570 machines, and £23 million was siphoned off by bookmakers in the process. In the same time scale, the place voted as the most desirable place to live in the UK – the Hart district of Hampshire there are just seven betting shops with a total of 24 Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. Liverpool council have understandably got very worried by the figures, and are now keen to place strong control measures on the betting shop operators. The problem with FOBT machines is that large amounts of money can be spent on the machines very quickly, and losses can mount up almost before the gambler realises. A hundred pounds can be lost in no more than thirty seconds. Nick Small, of Liverpool City Council said of the situation “millions of pounds that should be used for paying for food and rent was being sucked into the FOBT machines. Bookies are arriving all the time into prime retail locations. This is all driven for FOBTs. I have no doubt of it. We are seeing horrific reports of family breakdown caused by gambling debts, problems with loan sharks. We are pretty sure organised crime is using the machines to launder money. It's out of control in a city like ours, where there are a lot of poorer people”.  The same situation exists all around the UK, with poorer areas – just like Erith, being hit far harder than wealthier regions. Industry observers have commented that one way to reduce the problem specific to FOBT machines would be to limit the maximum stake gambled to £2 – like ordinary one armed bandit machines, and to limit the maximum pay out to £100. The gambling industry is not keen on this approach, for obvious reasons. To add to this, the Government are now showing an interest, as the subject is gaining column inches in the press now - despite the Government deciding not to place limits on the payouts of FOBT machines when it debated the issue last Summer. The issue has been ongoing for a number of years now, with little interest from the press. This would now appear to be changing, mainly due to a shocking story that was widely reported earlier this week. Bookmaker Paddy Power encouraged a problem gambler to keep betting until he lost five jobs, his home and access to his children, according to a report by the Gambling Commission. The company also failed to perform sufficient checks to ensure customers were not using its betting machines to launder the proceeds of crime. The betting regulators said that Paddy Power would make a voluntary payment of £310,000 to a “socially responsible” cause following its findings. Paddy Power will also be forced to review procedures designed to prevent money laundering and problem gambling and agree to share details of its own failings with the rest of the industry. In one case, Paddy Power admitted that senior staff encouraged a man with a gambling problem to keep betting despite warnings by more junior employees. The man  was a frequent user of fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs), which have been referred to as the “crack cocaine” of gambling. The machines allow customers to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds on games such as roulette and blackjack, for which the odds are fixed. In May 2014, Paddy Power staff became aware that the anonymous man was working at five separate jobs to fund his gambling and “had no money”, the Gambling Commission said. Although he claimed to be comfortable with his level of gambling, shop staff passed their concerns up the chain to senior staff, who advised monitoring him. Later that month, the shop manager informed a more senior member of staff that the man would be visiting the shop less frequently. The senior employee responded by advising that “steps should be taken to try to increase the customer visits and time spent in the gambling premises”. All of the large gambling chains have signed up to responsible gambling initiatives, and it would appear that in many cases, shop staff have indeed reported customers who seemed to be gambling larger amounts than they could afford, or coming into the betting shop more frequently than normal, but it would seem that senior management have been culturally inclined to ignore these reports in order to keep their profits up. It has also recently come to light that fixed odds betting terminals are being used by criminals to launder illegally acquired cash. Criminals can use games such as roulette to launder money at a small cost. For instance, someone with £100 in cash could place £48 on black, £48 on red and £2 on green, or 0. The maximum they could lose would be £4, at which point they could ask a bookmaker to put the remaining £96 on their debit card. The money would then appear as a legitimate payment from a bookmaker, hiding the fact that it could have been cash from a criminal enterprise. The Gambling Commission said that in August 2014, a shop manager suspected that a woman they called Customer B, a longstanding user of Paddy Power shops, was using gambling facilities to launder Scottish bank notes. The manager related their suspicions to more senior members of staff on four occasions over six months. But senior staff “repeatedly overruled” the shop manager, saying that as the notes were British currency and were not stained or counterfeit, it was unlikely that the money was being laundered. None of the suspicions were reported to the company’s money laundering reporting officer. Paddy Power only barred the customer after police raised fears that Scottish banknotes that were the proceeds of crime were being laundered in London. Subsequent checks revealed the customer could not validate ownership of a business she claimed to belong to her. The company initially told the Gambling Commission it had followed its money laundering policy but later admitted it had not dealt with its staff members’ suspicions properly. Now that this information is in the public domain, attitudes towards the big betting companies may now begin to change. At least they are very visible on many high streets, whereas online gambling is far less high profile and anonymous. Personally I have no interest in any form of gambling, but it would appear to be a large number of people do, and the line between “fun” betting and addiction would seem to be a very fine one. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

You may recall I recently covered the story concerning the very sudden closure of the Paper Moon in Dartford, and the (unsuccessful) campaign to keep the popular venue open. Pub owner Wetherspoon’s are undergoing a campaign to close down unprofitable pubs, and then open new pubs in areas where new business is thought to be located. Generally I am pretty ambivalent when discussions turn to Wetherspoon’s pubs – in general I find them a bit formulaic and samey, albeit with a good selection of reasonably priced real ales and not bad food. I very much prefer traditional pubs, but I can understand the attraction of a chain where reliability and predictability are key. I visited the newly refurbished New Cross Turnpike in Bellegrove Road, Welling last Saturday. The place has not long been reopened following an extensive refurbishment after being gutted by an accidental fire last August. I have to say that I was very impressed by the place. The refurbishment included some architectural redesigns within the building, as well as the use of higher quality materials than before. The pub is still on two levels (something that the serving staff must hate, as meals have to be taken upstairs to customers on the upper level by hand). I am very surprised that the designers / architects did not think to include a “dumb waiter”. The place is light and airy, with lots of glass, but the pub does suffer the problem so very common with Wetherspoon’s in general – the toilets are a very long way from the public areas, involving somewhat of a route march. I get the feeling that after a couple of shandies, by the time you make it back to the bar from the bogs, it would be time to go to the loo again. Having said that, I was very impressed – the place is clean and well run, with well – trained, helpful and attentive staff; the food was very good, and reasonably priced, and this obviously reflects well with the customers. By 12.30 on Saturday lunchtime, both the upper and lower floors were heaving with people, many of whom were ordering food as well as drinks. It may have helped that Welling United were playing at home later in the afternoon, but the diversity of the crowd suggested that many of the visitors were not there for a pre – match drink. It was certainly busy. I think that Wetherspoon’s have a lot they could teach Marston’s – the pub company / brewer who own and operate the Morgan in Clydesdale Road, Lower Belvedere. The Morgan is a pub / restaurant in a similar vein to Wetherspoon’s, and has been open for roughly a year. I have visited the place three times recently, and had cause to complain on two of the visits. I recently wrote to the manager saying “I thought it best to bring  a few observations concerning staff training and service levels to your attention in respect of a visit this lunchtime. A group of five people including myself visited the Morgan at 12.30pm this afternoon; we were seated at table 24. My friend ordered a pot of tea - when it was delivered, it was evident that the cup had not been properly washed up. The lady who served the tea had to sort through three other cups in order to find one that was acceptably clean. When this was delivered it too was found to be dirty, and a fourth replacement had to be sourced. This is unacceptable. Cleaning standards need to be improved.  Secondly, when the same friend went to the bar to place a drinks order, she was acknowledged by the server (a lady with a badge name of "Aeron") but when further customers approached the bar, my friend was ignored in preference of the new customers. The fact that my good friend is a British African lady made the situation look racist. At the very least it was an extremely unprofessional way to treat a paying guest. On top of this, "Aeron" opened a bottle of blackcurrant cordial, dropped the lid on the floor, then immediately replaced it on the bottle, in contravention of Health and Safety regulations.  Two of my group of five opted for the carvery meal - it was evident that the meat had been reheated and was dry and tough , and the mashed potato was made from an instant potato mix - again not acceptable at a Marston's restaurant  - you have a reputation for quality which was not met on this occasion. It is apparent that there are insufficient staff available for main service at the location - most of the staff are helpful, if not very well trained - as you may recall, I contacted you three months ago, after being double charged for a meal, which you agreed was an error, but have not still not refunded. The Morgan could be very good and a real asset to the local community, but a lack of training, and some poor quality staff do not help matters”. I got a very vague and slopey shouldered reply from the Morgan Management, which I won’t publish here, but suffice to say it did little to allay my concerns. It shows that two very similar enterprises, only separated by a few miles can have completely different approaches to customer service, and in my eyes Wetherspoon’s is easily the winner. Have you experienced something similar, or have you had excellent service in the Morgan? I would love to revisit and give it a glowing report, as it could be excellent with a few changes to the way it is run. At present however, it barely scrapes a three out of five, whereas the New Cross Turnpike gets a solid four and a half out of five. The benchmark for pub hospitality and service is set by the family run freehouse The Robin Hood and Little John in Lion Road Bexleyheath. It is the only hostelry in the borough to get the Arthur Pewty five stars of excellence award.

As I mentioned last week, I get all sorts of promotional junk sent to me by public relations companies, most of which gets read and binned by me. On Tuesday I received a message which I thought might well be of interest to some readers, especially bearing in mind that today is Mothering Sunday, and my previous experiences above relating to pub eating that I have just recounted. On top of this it mirrors my very own well - publicised antipathy towards mobile phones. See what you think:- "The introduction of the smoking ban saw an end to restaurants being split into smoking and non-smoking areas but this Sunday, Beefeater are introducing a new kind of dining segregation - a 'No Phone Zone'. Launched to coincide with Mother's Day, Britain's best-known steak restaurant has taken the bold step to create 'phone free' areas in response to research that outlines behaviour that can ruin family outings. Top of the table on the list of family outing-ruiners was 'constantly checking phones at the table', which 54 percent listed as the single most likely occurrence to cause an argument. The second and third most likely argument starters were a family member being underdressed or scruffy for the occasion (28 percent) and family members having earphones constantly plugged in (18 percent). Conversely, 'family conversation' is rated as the single most beneficial aspect of a good day out, with nearly two-thirds of respondents suggesting that just having a nice chat is the best bit of a family outing. Beefeater guests will be able to book a 'No Phone Zone' table for Sunday 6th March and those in the zone will have to hand their mobile phones to staff 'as a deposit' when they arrive. Hawk-eyed Beefeater staff will patrol the 'No Phone Zone' for mobiles and have the right to move guests who do not comply with the new rule. The 'No Phone Zone' will be trialled across sites this weekend, with a view to make the areas permanent if well received by diners. Sarah Tinsley, Head of Marketing for Beefeater said; "There's no denying the huge benefits our smartphones provide us, but there is a time and a place for their use and, especially on Mother's Day, we think we can do without them for an hour or two. Mums don't ask much of us and rarely even let us spend any money on them – so the least we can do is give Mums our undivided attention. "We hope this small adjustment to our setup enables a few more families to add some seasoned conversation to their meal." Beefeater is a British brand that first fired up the grill in 1974 and now has over 140 restaurants nationwide. The combination of great steak, friendly service and relaxed surroundings made Beefeater a big hit in Britain in the 70s, 80s and 90s and today is no different. For bookings please contact your local Beefeater or visit www.beefeater.co.uk". This could turn into quite a popular move, though I don't for one minute think it is anything other than a publicity stunt for Beefeater, thought up by the P.R company. We already have "quiet" carriages on some long distance train routes - I wonder if "quiet" areas in restaurants will take off in the same way?

The ending video this week is an update from Crossrail, showing the latest construction works being undertaken at Abbey Wood Station. If you watch carefully, during the interview with Nigel Fenn of Crossrail Engineering Management, which seem to have been held over the space of an hour or so on the London bound platform, and then edited together, you can see on the digital display board behind the interviewee that every single train heading towards London is delayed. Not that this has anything to do with Crossrail - it is the responsibility of Southeastern and Network rail, but it does reinforce the impression that Southeastern are a bunch of incompetents.