The crossing.

There has been serious disruption outside of Christ Church, Erith, and around the junction of Fraser Road, Bexley Road, Bronze Age Way and Queen's Road. As you can see from the photos above, the traffic lights on the bridge across the railway are not working, after a car went out of control. mounted the pavement, and collided with the traffic light control unit, putting it out of commission. As a result of this, the pedestrian crossing has been closed. This has been having a serious impact on commuters travelling to and from Erith Station. The junction, along with the adjacent Fish Roundabout is the second busiest in the whole of the London Borough of Bexley; the only busier location is the roundabout adjacent to the A2 by Hall Place. One would have thought that the authorities would have been speedy in repairing the accident damage, on such a high profile and heavily trafficked site, but the reality could not be very much further from the truth. I received the following Email from a concerned local resident who chooses to remain anonymous:- "I don’t know if you’re aware that the pedestrian traffic lights near the Fish roundabout have been out of order for several days now, following an accident. By dint of several emails to Bexley and TFL I’ve been given the following update from an official in Bexley’s Engineering Services which your readers might be interested in. I’m sure many locals have found it almost impossible to cross there in recent days without risking life or limb and currently there seems little or no work going on there, though usefully there’s a sign saying Crossing Not In Use (!) I was personally subjected to a volley of abuse last weekend by a bus driver who objected to stopping behind a car which had made way for me, and it must be chaotic there during peak commuter times.  As you can see, Bexley told me it was TFL’s responsibility whilst TFL told me the opposite, hence the opening sentence. Hopefully by the time the next Maggot Sandwich goes out, the situation might have resolved itself, though it seems unlikely at the moment". A council official had responded to my correspondent with the following:- "I can assure you that this matter is for Transport for London to resolve, despite what their customer services have advised below. I have contacted them direct and found that the delay to being re-instated is due to the fact that the collision damaged the controller to the crossing rather than just one of the signal poles.  Therefore they have had to source replacement equipment for it as it an older style system; upgrading to the new style system is not a simple matter of putting in the new unit, but would require a full recabling and replacement of all the signal heads etc.  I understand the replacement equipment has nearly all been installed now and the final safety and operation checks will be needed prior to actual return to use. They were unable to provide a date for this to be done, but aware it is required urgently due to limited alternative routes and our pressing for completion. Hopefully, it will be resolved very soon". After some research, I have come to understand that remedial work on the traffic lights and their controller unit is now scheduled to begin next week - ten days since the traffic lights were put out of commission. The fact that no temporary traffic lights or other provision for the hundreds of local commuters and other pedestrians on what is the second busiest junction in the whole of the borough has been made really speaks loudly as to how poorly the authorities regard Erith residents. What do you think? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Last week I mentioned that as well as the connection between Clint Eastwood and Plumstead, there was a further connection to an Oscar winning performer. I had a couple of readers contact me with suggestions as to who the mystery person could be - and the names quoted were fascinating, but incorrect; one of the actors mentioned will be featured in a future Maggot Sandwich update, as prior to being contacted, I had absolutely no idea that the actor had any local connection at all. It is not often that the local area gets used as the location for a film; we have had Thamesmead and the old Bexley College tower (now demolished, and replaced by a housing estate) used as locations for the cult E4 TV show “Misfits”, but to my knowledge the last time the area was used for a major feature film was back in September 1970 to April 1971, when Stanley Kubrick used Tavy Bridge area of Thamesmead as the main location for much of his film “A Clockwork Orange”. Since then things have been quiet. The only exception to this was back in the 18th of March 2014 - 3rd of May 2014, when the producers of a film called “London Road”, which used locations in Lower Belvedere, Thamesmead and Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere as locations for the film musical based on the 2006 Ipswich prostitute murders. “London Road” used verbatim testimony from residents to show how they came together to rebuild their world after five women were killed in the Suffolk town in 2006. It is based on the award-winning stage production at the National Theatre. The film starred actress Olivia Colman (who I have seen on stage playing “Minka”, the psychopathic Polish secretary in the excellent and very underrated WWII set BBC Radio 4 sitcom “Hut 33” - some years before she became famous). in 2018 Olivia Colman won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role as Queen Anne in the film "The Favourite". Her earlier role in the locally shot movie "London Road" generally went rather unnoticed. When promoting "London Road" back in 2015, Olivia Colman said of the film: “It’s actually about a group of people who heal themselves. I think people have a preconception that the musical is about death and murder but that’s not what it is about. It’s about a community who have got the world’s press looking at them and decide to make themselves better. Learning the verbatim script — including all the “ums” and “ers” of conversation — was much harder than a normal one. But having been fearful of it and close to tears at times, I'd say it was one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling jobs I've ever had. It also means the words audiences hear are what people genuinely said and were not “twisted”. These are real people, with no filter, being terribly honest”. She also had to sing in the film, which was not something that she had done before: “I used to sing at school. I can hold a tune, but I’m not under any impression I’m a proper singer. It was really scary, but lovely. It’s a fascinating story that most of us remember from the news.” Olivia Colman said it was a weird project compared with “shoot-em-up” movies or rom-coms, but added: “I think film-lovers will love this film. It is absolutely original.” The photo above shows Oliva Colman looking through the serving hatch from the main hall and into the kitchen in All Saint’s Church Hall in Nuxley Road, Upper Belvedere. Slightly behind her, dressed in purple is Anita Dobson; out of shot is the co - star of the film, Tom Hardy. You can watch a review of "London Road" by the BBC's Mark Kermode by clicking here. Contact me in confidence by Email at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Following the observations and photograph published last week, courtesy of reader Damion, I received the photo shown above, and the text below from retired professional photographer Richard, who writes:- "Interesting to read your article about the Thames seals. They have been a feature in Thamesmead for some years and usually haul themselves out onto the mud flats in front of the (now disused) power station water outlet opposite the old golf course. They can be seen elsewhere along the river, (they especially like to fish at the Crossness outfall), but they do seem to prefer that one piece of mud and can be seen regularly at low tide during the Autumn and Winter months. The Common, or Harbour Seals appear first and are joined later in the year by Grey Seals. Incidentally, if anyone does spot a seal or any other marine mammal, they should report in on the Thames Marine Mammal Survey. The link is here - https://sites.zsl.org/inthethames/ The attached picture (shown above - click on it for a larger view) is one I took a year or so ago".

The Bookstore Cafe, run by The Exchange at the old Carnegie Library in Walnut Tree Road in Erith have announced their festive Christmas menu. In the upper of the two images above, you can see staff putting up Christmas decorations in the cafe, which is rated as the number one eaterie in the local area by TripAdviser. The Bookstore Cafe is run by cafe manager Laura Bell, and menus are devised by Head Chef Louisa Budds, who trained with the Michelin-star chef Marcus Wareing. The Bookstore Cafe is a not-for-profit part of The Exchange, so any proceeds made go back into the Old Library and its community offer. Every pound you spend does a good deed. The announcement reads:- "From Friday the 15th of November, we will be serving a taste of Christmas! Including: Starters of hot smoked salmon, chicken liver and brandy parfait, and winter spiced squash soup; Main courses of roast turkey or beef, or a mushroom pithivier served with roasted potatoes, wilted chestnut greens and honey-glazed parsnips and carrots. Desserts include chocolate and orange torte, pear and ginger pudding and a tasty cheese section. The cost for a three-course Christmas dinner is £25 per person;  or book with a glass of bubbles on arrival for £30 per person. This menu will be available from 15 November for Friday lunchtimes, and Friday and Saturday evenings. From the 1st December it will be available for Sunday lunches. If you are interested in booking, please contact us here with numbers and preferred date, and let us know of any dietary requirements/allergies. Please note, for every booking we will ask for a £10 per head deposit".

Following my slightly tongue in cheek comments last week about local resident Jermaine Kerr, otherwise known as The Dartford Raver. It has come to my attention that the lad is actually not from Dartford after all - he's an Erith resident. Since he promoted his rather woeful YouTube channel several weeks ago by writing "YouTube Dartford Raver" all over local bus stops and other public areas, the marker pen graffiti has now been removed in some locations by the sub contractor company that maintains the stops. I sincerely hope that Kerr does not re - vandalise the bus stops, as I am sure it would get him into serious trouble. I gather from someone that knows him that he's a nice lad, just a bit on the naive side. Advertising yourself by illegal graffiti is a mug's game.

Jonathan Batten, member of the  Erith Think Tank (photo from a recent meeting above - click on it for a larger view) is not a happy man right now - and with good reason. The Think Tank, who's mission includes improving community engagement, extended an olive branch to the Council when they were invited to speak at a Think Tank meeting in October. This meeting was a success, and the hope was that this could continue. However, he feels that the warm words spoken at that meeting have yet to translate in positive action. Jonathan stated to me that his views are his own, and not necessarily those of the other members of the  Erith Think Tank, to whome he has written the below to seek their views. Jonathan writes: :- "I was disappointed to find out via Twitter, after the fact, that Erith's regeneration was on the Agenda and discussed at the Public Cabinet meeting on Tuesday evening (12th Nov), coincidentally at the same time as our meeting. I was further disappointed that despite exchanging emails with Cllr Louie French the day before about there being further communication between the Council and the Think Tank, AND with Cllr's Joe Ferreira and Nicola Taylor on the same day (!), none of them thought to mention that this was being discussed. Despite the warms words supporting good engagement, the Think Tank was not at the fore-front of their minds when the Council's Erith regeneration plans were seeking approval from elected members. I have written to all of the above Cllr's to express my disappointment, and urge better communication going forward. I have no doubt that Think Tank members would have wished to attend and ask questions. Cllr French's response, in short, is that we should follow the Council more closely on social media. The content of the statements from the Council and responses from Cllrs was most illuminating, and the document being discussed even more so. I feel I now know more about the immediate future for Erith's regeneration than I learnt from the two hours of Bexley Council presenting to the Think Tank at our meeting in October and all my research to date. Watching back through some of the responses in the footage from the Council presentation, there is much obfuscation, whereas here we have the direction of travel in black and white, ultimately ending in 6000 new homes and 2000 new jobs (over the 30 years of the Growth Strategy). To paraphrase the meeting and document: Progress the redevelopment of 70 Pier Rd (old Bank chambers - they have already engaged architects and will be seeking planning permission and appointing contractors of the £4.2 million pound project - we discover now that this will be 'redeveloped into offices and residential units, whilst at the same time ensuring the asset is protected' - quite how this can work needs serious examination.) Open a community Kitchen at 66/68 Pier Rd (partnership between Bexley and GCDA, a Greenwich based co-operative, funded by the Mayors 'Good Growth' fund, which will include a 'family friendly cafe, provision for a professional kitchen for hire, and cooking sessions for local families'. The Council feels there is room for two publicly funded cafe's in Erith - what do you think? A less than informative 'consultation' on this happened in the Spring - but nothing visual or written was presented; indeed the stand appeared to be just handing out food samples.) Negotiate and purchase a lease for 28-40 Pier Rd (empty space above Farm-foods - refurbish space as an office, to be sub-let.) Progress the feasibility and concept design work for the Erith links program and submit a bid to TfL for 'Liveable Neighbourhood' funding. (This is a significant project for which the Council are bidding for funds, that would see the 'movement' of traffic, cyclists and pedestrians dramatically remodelled in the town centre, and thereby improve the high street, air quality and congestion through Erith. The work along Pier Rd reflects the Council thrust to make this the central street in Erith's town centre. They have not been successful in previous attempts to secure this money. The bid is going in on the 29/11/19.) Develop proposals for the redevelopment of the sites in Erith's 'western gateway' ('Core site' within Walnut Tree Road, Bexley Road and Erith High street - inc more housing, shop frontages to Bexley Road and Erith High street. The towers will stay and are in good condition, but will be built around. The former Town Hall, Running Horses pub and postoffice corner will also remain. See here for a 2012 scheme. Some of this will change due to the potential re-modelling of the traffic flow, but Erith Bath's is the first step on this redevelopment, and the direction of travel is likely to be the same). Explore a potential partnership with Orbit housing who are the major landowner in the area. (See above point - further detail to be brought forward at Cabinet meeting for approval in New Year - v.soon then!) Continue to acquire properties in the Pier Rd area. (Properties are being quietly bought by the Council at market value - 'to date, one significant freehold interest, and five long leasehold interests' - this will form the new high-street, and pedestrians will enter Erith from the station, down this road, and ending at the Pier.) 'Options' for the opening up of the end of Avenue Road. What's clear from the above is that there is already a secret Masterplan for Erith, and the Council are pushing towards that end at pace, whilst not being forthcoming with Erith's residents, nor doing enough to seek their views.  Several Councillors spoke, including Louie French and Cllr Read (Erith resident and who also attended the meeting in September) in support of this moving forward. Nicola Taylor read a statement, as one of Erith's Councillors; whilst it is commendable that Cllr Taylor argued for more affordable and social housing and that 'regeneration shouldn't become gentrification', the partisan party political framing of the statement was met with a frosty partisan party political response from leader of the Council, Teresa O'Neill, which did little to change anyone's mind. It was also disappointing that none of the actual content of the document being considered was challenged. The whole document was presented, and waived through in around 12 minutes. In short, one has to question whether the Council and Cllr's mean what they say when they talk about good community engagement, and whether the quality of the scrutiny at these meetings is serving Erith well. 

The Maggot Sandwich is brought to you this week courtesy of my Raspberry Pi 4B - as shown in the photograph above. The small, cheap computer, primarily designed for education is the size of  a credit card. I use it as a secondary computer, and a backup to my main Apple iMac, which is my workhorse desktop computer. Unfortunately my Mac decided to start playing up on Friday evening, and at the time of writing, I am not sure exactly what the problem is; bearing in mind my long background in IT, it is most definitely a case of "Physician, heal thyself" - though a trip to the Apple store at Bluewater looks like it will probably be on the cards at some point. Apple kit is not really self repairable. I suspect that the problem is centred around the Bluetooth keyboard, but time will tell. *Update* - the problems with the Mac were down to a failure in the Bluetooth keyboard - it was constantly sending false signals to the computer, causing the very strange behaviour I experienced. According to a couple of Apple online forums, this kind of failure is a known issue with the older type of Apple Bluetooth keyboards. You live and learn.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly the update from Barnehurst ward:- "Good news first, Barnehurst Ward have had no Incidents of vehicle crime however there have been two recent burglary's. The first occurred in Merewood Road at 03.55am on 12/11/2019. Entry was gained via the front door which was not double locked. Very slight tool marks were found on the door frame. Victim woke after hearing noise and disturbed the burglar who fled the scene taking with him a handbag. This bag was later recovered but contents missing. No one was seen, this may be due to a nearby footpath that was probably the escape route / The second burglary was also on the 12/11/2019 between 05.00pm – 6.45pm in Downbank Avenue, not too far away from Merewood Road. This was an empty property so it's believed nothing has been taken. The front door was found to be forced open by a neighbour who in turn alerted Police / Residents of Midfield Road have now received Smart Water kits. We will be making a start on Eastleigh Road very soon. Next door is a social media platform which we now use on a regular basis, please can you encourage neighbour to sign up. The next community contact session is on Tuesday 19th November 2019 at 11.00am in Barnehurst Golf Club. We look forward to seeing you". Belvedere ward:-"There was a report of a burglary at Dowling House in Laymarsh Close last week. A resident of the sheltered accommodation in the street reported that at some point between October/ November, his flat had been accessed and jewellery stolen. The investigation into this is ongoing at this stage. The team are still receiving calls and reports of anti-social behaviour taking place around the Samson Court end of Ruskin Road. Over the last week we have carried out several patrols of the location in an effort to curb this behaviour. From these patrols, PC Smith has had reason to stop/search 5 persons in the residents car parking area, resulting in 4 cannabis seizures with warnings given and one person issued a £90 fine. PC Holmes also completed a search in St. Augustines Road having stopped a female smoking cannabis in her car – this also resulted in a warning given. There was another burglary on the ward, in Elmbourne Drive. This is said to have happened in the late afternoon at dusk. Residents reported returning home to find their patio doors to the rear of the property had had glass smashed and entry was gained by this means. Strangely, nothing appears to have been taken from the property. PC Holmes and PCSO Worrall are visiting Belvedere Junior school this week to speak to each year group on a range of topics. Our next street a week is taking place on Monday 18th at 5pm in Bunkers Hill". Bexleyheath ward:- "Wednesday 6/11/19 Theft from Motor Vehicle 1915 – 2215 whilst in Goals Bexleyheath; side window on car has been smashed and sports bag and contents stolen. Wednesday 6/11/19 1000 Burglary Mayplace Road East entry gained through front door, deadlock not activated. Unknown which items stolen at time of reporting. Thursday 7/11/19 1700 Criminal Damage Cineworld Bexleyheath – eggs thrown at window. Thursday 7/11/19 1720 Criminal Damage Cineworld Bexleyheath – eggs thrown at window again same group of youths. Friday 8/11/19 1230 Theft of Handbag whilst trying on shoes in Harris Bexleyheath Broadway. Friday 8/11/19 1900 Theft of a youths mobile phone by other youths in Martens Grove Park".  Crayford ward:- "I am really sorry to say that we have had three burglaries this week in Crayford. On Friday 8th November between 07.00-17.45 a rear window was smashed to a property in Barnes Cray Road and a laptop was stolen.  A bank card was stolen during a burglary in Stephen Road between 10.00 on Thursday 7th November and 17.50 on Friday 8th November, the front door was found open but the rear patio door had been smashed off its runners. A significant amount of tools were stolen from a property in Iron Mill Place undergoing renovations between Friday 8th November and Monday 11th November. Entry was made by prising open an aluminium window at the rear of the property. Items stolen included, a Triton Breaker in a black case, Magnusson levels, three in a black case, Makita 9” grinder, Stanley Fatman bag containing selection of drills, Rubi 4” Tile grinder and spare blade, Makita site radio, Challenge Chop Saw and Topps Tiles tile cutter. There has also been an attempted break in to a garage at the rear of homes in Glebelands between Friday 8th and Tuesday 12th November, the padlock was broken off and the handle damaged but no entry gained. Tyres were slashed on a grey Seat Ateca parked outside Crosby House between 20.00 on Friday 8th November and 09.00 on Saturday 9th November. Youths have been shoplifting food items from Greggs, they are all white males aged between 13-16 years. A football bag and Sat Nav were stolen from a white Ford Transit whilst parked at Hall Place between 05.20-13.00 on Saturday 9th November. Criminal damage was caused to a white BMW one series whilst parked in Watling Street between 18.20 on the Saturday 9th November and 14.00 on Sunday 10th November, the window was smashed and a dent was caused to the door frame, no entry gained to the vehicle. A catalytic convertor was stolen from a blue Toyota Auris Hybrid whilst parked at Hall Place on Monday 11th November between 9.30 and 11.30, the metal plate covering the catalytic convertor was bent down and a number of bolts and screws were found under the vehicle. A Landrover, registration WV53HFH was stolen off the driveway of a property in Mayplace Road East on Monday 11th November between 06.00-15.00. Between Thursday 7th and Tuesday 12th November a black Renault Clio was damaged whilst parked at Mulberry Court, Bourne Industrial Park, Bourne Road, the lock was smashed and the seal around the window was removed, it is not known if anything was stolen. Our next community contact session will be at Crayford Library on Tuesday 19th November between 14.00-15.00. The Crayford Winter Festival will be held at Waterside Gardens on Saturday 30th November, there will lots going on and is expected to be a lovely community event, Christmas lights will be switched on for Crayford by local children". Erith ward:- "We have been hit with theft from M/V again we will be out today posting motor crime prevention leaflets to areas being targeted. Residential burglary on Wednesday 7/11/2019 Larner Road - By unknown suspect/s forcing entry to house via rear doors smashing windows of doors to gain entry. An untidy search has been conducted in each room at property Shoplift  of greater than £200 Monday 5/11/2019 Matalan Erith High Street. Attempted Residential Burglary Thursday 8/11/2019 Pembroke Road - Suspect has smashed the rear garden door but has not entered the property. Theft from Motor Vehicle Sunday 10/11/2019 Saltford Close. Theft from Motor Vehicle Sunday 10/11/2019 Winifred Road,  Theft from Motor Vehicle Monday 11/11/2019 James Watt Way, Theft from Motor Vehicle Tuesday 12/11/2019 Erith High Street". Northumberland Heath ward:- "The team have been very busy over the last week, we have visited one of the blocks in Becton Place due to complaints from residents about cannabis being smoked inside properties and in the stairwells. The team delivered letters to every resident in the block introducing the team and giving our contact details, also in the letter reminding residents that it is a breach of their tenancy. During this visit the team stopped a group of males who are known for ASB and drug offences, 2 of the males were searched and the group were given strong words of advice about entering or hanging around the block. The team are still investigating a large scale of ASB and theft from BNN Mini Mart on Brook Street, we are gradually identifying the the males of whom we have very good CCTV images off. Unfortunately we have had a burglary on Belmont Road this week, we believe this may have been a targeted burglary for Asian Gold. The team attended the location and made door to door enquiries and search for CCTV. We also had a theft of a catalytic converter from a vehicle on Bedonwell Road. Please note that if you would like to fill in the Bexley Crime Survey, we have supplied a batch of these to the library on Mill Road, the form will take about 5 mins and gives you a chance to have your say on crime on the borough, we have supplied a box for your completed forms to be posted into.  Our next community contact session is on Wednesday 27th November at 3pm in the Mill Road Library, please do come along and meet a member of the team and discuss any issues or concerns you have, or just pop in and say hello".

Slade Green and Northend ward:- "A burglary took place between 3pm and 8.30pm in Alexandra Road on Friday 08/11. Entry was made via a smashed window in the back door. Tablets, jewellery and cash were taken. CCTV at the back of the property shows at least 2 suspects leaving the back of the property as the victim came home. Unfortunately the footage has no clear image of the suspects. The team are aware of a recent increase in ASB and criminal damage around Budgens on Rainbow Road and in the bin sheds on the estate. CCTV images of all those involved are being looked at to take the necessary action against anyone identified. Patrols are to be made as and when we can. PCSO Mark attended the Remembrance Sunday Service at St Augustines on Sunday 10/11 where around 200 people came to pay their respects and lay tributes at the memorial. Our next Community Contact Session is on Thursday 21/11/2019 from 11am in the Forest Road café". Thamesmead East ward:- "Attempted burglary - Rushdene Road Sat 9/11/19 between 8:20 pm – 8:40pm. Victim's partner heard a noise from outside when they opened the front door house keys which were previously stolen were on the floor of the porch. No entry was gained as the locks had been change 2 weeks ago. (Victim had previously reported having items stolen from a vehicle 2 weeks ago, one of the items stolen were house keys). Theft of motor vehicle - Landridge Road between Tuesday 5/11/19 5pm – 4am Wednesday 6/11/19. Victim vehicle was parked securely outside home address. When victim woke up in the morning to leave for work the vehicle was missing and there was evidence of broken glass on the ground. Theft from motor vehicle - Please be vigilant – Wolvercote Road. Member of public (MOP) was sitting in a vehicle talking to friends when MOP stated seeing 2 males on the pavement ahead trying the door handle of the vehicle in front. Suspects walked towards MOP vehicle trying the door, when they realised there were people inside. Officers attended carrying out an area search but unfortunately there was no trace of suspects. Rushdene Road Sat 9/11/19 between 7am – 10am Sun 11/11/19 Victim called police to report the theft of both number plates whilst it was parked in the street, only realised by victim after driving to church. Sydney Road Sat 9/11/19 between 12:30pm – 10:45 am Sun 11/11/19 Victim reported both front and rear number plates removed from vehicle, it looked like they had been snapped off". West Heath ward:- "Unfortunately we have had two residential burglaries over the last week. On Thursday November 7th at 6.30pm the occupants of a property in Hollingbourne Avenue were upstairs when they heard a noise coming from downstairs. Entry was gained via the rear of the property and it appears that the door was insecure. Thankfully the suspect was disturbed and made off. On Monday November 11th between 5.43pm and 7.43pm a front door in Lodge Hill was forced, an untidy search of the property was conducted and a set of keys and a car key were stolen. The door to the property was not double locked and the suspect was able to pop the lock on the door in order to gain entry. One theft on number plates from a vehicle parked in Hillsgrove Road between 0200 – 1130am on Sunday November 10th. Another arrest by officers this week for a male wanted for failure to appear at court. The team also assisted at the Remembrance day Parade in Crayford on Sunday November 11th".

Bearing in mind we are shortly to undergo yet another general election, I thought that this week I would feature historic Pathe News footage of the 1965 local bye election. Many of the locations featured in the old film will no doubt be familiar to local residents, but the cars and the fashions mark it out as 1965, as does the practice of the various candidates knocking on people's front doors - something I don't think happens much, if at all nowadays.

Spamalot.

After all of the controversy surrounding last year's licence application by the owners of The White Hart African Restaurant and Wine Bar at 44 Erith High Street, and their rejected request to open until 5am every day of the week, I was hoping that the restaurant would settle down and become an active part of the local community. Proper sit down restaurants are not as common as many would like in Erith, and anything that would encourage more local night life should be welcomed. Unfortunately The White Hart seems not to be living up to that ideal. It was recently examined by health inspectors from Bexley Council, and ended up with a deplorable one star out of a possible five on the "Scores on the Doors" food hygiene rating website. Bearing in mind the kitchen installation is only eight months old, and was apparently brand new when installed, it beggars belief into what must have happened in less than a year to qualify it for a one star health rating. I have had reports from  a couple of trusted local sources that on top of the poor standard of hygiene, the food produced by the restaurant is of dubious quality - one local critic wrote "it looked like it came out of a tin". Another customer wrote that:- "We were seated at 7.30pm. I received my food 9.42pm. The last person received their food after 10pm. There was no kind gesture, or proper apology. No discount off the bill for poor service. They admitted that the mistake was on their part but didn’t see how they could ensure that customers left feeling satisfied. Restaurants stay afloat because customers come in and choose to spend their money there. If they have to wait 2.5 hours for food that was pre ordered days in advance, this is considered poor service. The manager refused to be a part of this conversation. They left a server to deal with a matter that was beyond her. I am deeply disappointed with this service and the lack of compassion and lack of professionalism!" It would also seem from the photographs posted online on various social media channels, that the former pub beer cellar, which has been converted into a VIP lounge would appear to be in regular use, despite the licence condition that the cellar could not be used as it did not have a fire exit, which contravenes health and safety legislation, and also, if true, would be in breach of the building's fire certificate. I attended the council licencing meeting for The White Hart, and was present when a senior Bexley fire officer underlined this fact. This is all very disappointing. I was hoping that The White Hart would become a destination venue for the town, and a lead venue in regenerating night time socialisation in Erith; at present many people - if they go out at all - journey to Bexleyheath, Dartford or Bluewater, rather than eat and drink locally. This also is disappointing when one considers that the food health standards in Bexley have been improving markedly over the last few years. Bexley continues to be one of the highest rated places to eat out in London. Figures released by The Food Standards Agency (FSA) for 2018/19 show that 93.4 percent of food businesses in Bexley are rated at 3, 4, or 5. This is higher than the 90.5 percent rating for the whole of London. The food hygiene ratings scheme scores food businesses from 5 to 0. The ratings are: 5 - very good; 4 - good; 3 - generally satisfactory; 2 - some improvement is necessary; 1 - major improvement is necessary; 0 - urgent improvement is required. Food safety officers from the Council inspect businesses to check that it follows food hygiene law so that the food is safe to eat. Food hygiene ratings are given to restaurants, pubs, cafes, takeaways, food vans and stalls, canteens, hotels, supermarkets and other food shops, schools, hospitals and care homes. The allocated score is supposed to be displayed both at the premises and online, although low scoring premises often use fake ratings stickers, or re - use previously issued stickers with higher ratings. Currently it is not compulsory for food outlets to display their "Scores on the Doors" ratings - however much this might be desirable. What do you think? Have you eaten at The White Hart? What was your opinion of the food and the service? Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com with your thoughts.

Yesterday the London Evening Standard published a story which damned the local area with faint praise, and made a factually inaccurate statement - the article read:- "With an average asking price of £305,700, the riverfront area of Erith in south-east London is the cheapest place to buy in the capital. It’s not currently the most prepossessing spot – it's surrounded by sewage works and industrial estates – but you can buy a detached house for under £500,000 and there is change on the horizon. There are new-build three-bedroom houses for less than £400,000 at The Quarry, which describes itself as an eco-development with 600 new homes, a primary school, park and play areas. Help to Buy is available on the scheme. In the as yet undetermined medium to long term the area will also benefit from Crossrail stops at Abbey Wood and Woolwich once the new line is finally up and running.  Erith’s western neighbour, Thamesmead, is the second cheapest place to buy in London with an average price of £309,400". You can read the whole of the original article by clicking here. 

Did you know that Gmail in the UK is fifteen years old in the this week? Google announced the (then) revolutionary browser based Email client in the USA on April 1st 2004, and released it in the UK later in June. Many industry pundits at the time thought the whole thing was an elaborate April Fool’s Day hoax – who would ever offer each and every user an online message storage capacity of 1 Gigabyte – five hundred times the capacity of the then market leader, Microsoft’s Hotmail? As history shows, it was anything but a trick – it was the single most important release Google had made to date since it launched its search engine in 1998. Gmail was revolutionary for a number of important reasons: It has vast storage, a very zippy and responsive user interface that was well thought out, user friendly and intuitive. It also had a very powerful message search function, which other browser based Email solutions were not able to replicate. On top of this, it was the first major cloud based application that was feature complete and capable of replacing conventional PC software, rather than complimenting it. Gmail was started by a chap called Paul Buchheit – a (then) young software engineer, who was Google’s 23rd employee. He wanted a tool that would search through his archived Email messages, and realising nothing suitable was available, decided to write a search function himself. Initially the Email search engine was running on an old PC on his desk; then other Google engineers asked if they could use Paul Buchheit’s search engine to search their own emails. At the time, the likes of Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail had little or no inbuilt search functionality – but then, it was not really a priority when users were limited to twenty megabytes of storage, and were having to continually delete messages in order to keep under their storage limit. Messages were hard to lose when the limits were so small.  Gmail gave users a Gigabyte of storage – all for free. Initially the web based Gmail was a product only used within Google itself. The company managed much of its business via Email, and having an in – house solution made a lot of sense to them. A decision was made to offer the web application (a first – previous web based Email clients from other vendors had been clunky and dog – slow efforts written in HTML – every time something changed on screen, the whole page needed to be reloaded, which was slow and flickery and gave a very poor user experience – something Google were keen to avoid). Instead Google wanted Gmail to feel like an installed application that one merely happened to be accessing via a web browser – something revolutionary at the time, and not that common nowadays. With Gmail, Paul Buchheit worked around HTML’s limitations by using highly interactive JavaScript code. That made it feel more like software than a sequence of web pages. Before long, the approach would get the moniker AJAX, which stood for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML; today, it is how all web applications like FaceBook and Google Docs are built. But when Gmail was pioneering the technique, it wasn’t clear that it was going to work. The fundamental issue was that back in 2002/3, when Gmail was being developed, web browsers were far less sophisticated than nowadays. The problem with using large chunks of JavaScript programming code to make a slick, quick web experience was that Internet Explorer 6 (by far the most widely used web browser at the time) was pretty poor at handling JavaScript, (actually IE6 was pretty poor at everything, but that is another story). Google were worried that by making a sophisticated, cutting edge product, they would end up crashing Internet Explorer 6 every so often, which would annoy and alienate their key user base. Eventually the quirks and shortcomings of Internet Explorer 6 were tamed, and Gmail was ready for release. Initially it was going to be offered to a limited number of public Beta testers (I was one of these people – I have one of the first 1,500 Gmail user accounts ever created). Google were so unsure of how Gmail would be received that they initially hosted the entire service on three hundred old Pentium III computers that nobody else at Google wanted, and were otherwise going into the recycling skip. The initial limited run of accounts was soon boosted, as a Gmail address became the new, fashionable thing to have – the scarcity made it cool. Not everything was going Google’s way though. The Gmail business model, which was (and still is) based on scanning the message text, and serving up discreet, context sensitive adverts was not universally well received. A U.S politician, California State Senator Liz Figueroa  sent Google a letter of her own, calling Gmail a “disaster of enormous proportions, for yourself, and for all of your customers.” She went on to draft a bill requiring, among other things, that any company that wanted to scan an email message for advertising purposes get the consent of the person who sent it. (By the time the California Senate passed the law, cooler heads prevailed and that obligation had been eliminated.) Nevertheless, if ultimate privacy is a concern of yours, Gmail is not for you. Despite this, the last time Google released usage figures was back in 2012; at that time Gmail had 425 million active and frequently used accounts - it is now thought that figure comfortably exceeds 1.4 billion, which suggests to me that discomfort with Google’s approach to online advertising is a minority concern (either that, or many people know no better, which is a possibility). Compared with Hotmail (now Outlook.com) the look and feel of Gmail has changed little – any updates and changes are incremental and subtly performed; Google realise that a substantial portion of their customers value the familiarity of the application, and don’t want change for change’s sake. Whatever your views, Gmail has come a hell of a long way in the last fifteen years, and it is a cornerstone of many people’s lives. Happy Birthday Gmail.

Last night I attended the final performance of Spamalot, performed by members of Erith Playhouse. It was a sell - out show of the classic Monty Python comedy musical. Incidentally the production made history - it was the first time that Spamalot had been performed by an amateur theatre company - all other shows until now had been professionally presented. It was a wonderful - if extremely hot evening, and a very entertaining play. You can read a review of the Erith Playhouse production of Spamalot by clicking here. Click on either of the photographs above to see a larger version. You can visit the Erith Playhouse website by clicking here. 

Once again Belvedere has come out with the dubious distinction of being the hardest place in the UK to pass your driving test, with a pass rate of just 31 per cent over the last decade. December is the least fruitful of months, with success rates declining as low as 29 per cent, the recently reported statistics suggest. The national average of passes is just over 50 per cent. If you sit your driving test in Scotland, you have a far higher chance of passing - go to Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute where it is 73 per cent, rising to an incredible 90 per cent in May. Quite why it is so difficult to pass your driving test in Belvedere is not clear; if any reader can cast light on this situation, please feel free to contact me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

It would seem that after several years of on / off negotiations, the theme park that has been so long planned for North Kent is not only back on, but the original partner - Paramount - who backed out of the huge project, are now suddenly back on board. The theme park was originally due to open this year, but has now been delayed until some point yet to be determined. It is to be located on the Swanscombe Peninsula, which will feature Europe’s largest indoor water park, theatres, live music venues, attractions, cinemas, restaurants, event space and hotels. Allied to the project will be a training academy for the entertainment and hospitality sectors, a new country park, a large science and education visitor complex and the biggest performing arts centre in Europe.  The plans for the park received considerable backing from the British government when Paramount London became the first commercial venture to be awarded Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project status allowing the developers to bypass local planning requirements. It will involve at least 25,000 permanent full and part time jobs in an area which has exceptionally high regional unemployment. An area estimated to stretch between Dover and Greenwich will benefit from the jobs and money that the theme park will generate. The theme park have hired a new Chief Executive in the form of PY Gerbeau, who famously took on the failed Millennium Dome project, prior to its conversion into the successful O2 Arena that it is today. London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) said in  a recent press interview:- “The new partnership with Paramount is fantastic news for everyone. Now the best of Hollywood will be joining the best of British from BBC Studios and ITV Studios, to create amazing and unique experiences for the whole family. I am delighted to join The London Resort and to play my part in helping to create a world-class destination to rival all others. Central to that strategy is to partner with the best brands from across TV, film, music and entertainment. Having Paramount on board is a major step towards realising that ambition". I suppose that the pessimist in me says that Paramount have dropped out once before; I can see no guarantee that they won't do it again. Having said that, with intellectual property from the BBC and ITV, along with Paramount, if the theme park does indeed go ahead, it will be a huge benefit to the entire region in terms of jobs and prosperity that will follow. Three times larger than other UK parks, it will have 200 acres dedicated to rides and experiences and a bespoke entertainment district devoted to a full-suite of hospitality experiences including the provision of thousands of hotel rooms. This is inevitably going to push up the local house prices, and the areas such as the North of the London Borough of Bexley are almost certain to be disproportionately affected. If you are contemplating purchasing a property in Erith, Slade Green or the surrounding towns, I would strongly advise you to do it as soon as possible, as prices are set to go through the roof.

I was pretty much self taught in computing; when I was at school, computer studies was a very new field, and generally maths teachers were given the job of teaching pupils about computers. Some were excellent, many had little training and less aptitude for the job. At my school, a fair number of pupils knew way more than the computer studies teacher. I recall the time when my friend Roy and I rewrote the CP/M operating system disk on the school’s solitary Research Machines 380Z so that instead of saying on boot up “Research Machines 380Z Basic (C) RM 1979” it said “Washing Machines 380Z Basic (C) Hugh and Roy”. The teacher went ballistic – saying “you’ve broken the computer” and banning us from the computer room for a month. He could not grasp the fact that we had copied the operating system onto a fresh floppy disc, and only made changes to the copy. This kind of innocent (and sometimes not so innocent) tinkering was a key way we learned how to program and also modify computer hardware. It also helped that this all happened at the beginning of the home computer revolution in 1981/82. The BBC Micro, the Sinclair ZX81, and a little later the ZX Spectrum, and a host of other pioneering machines were making their way into the bedrooms of children all over the UK. Compared with kids in the USA, who had Apple II‘s and IBM PC’s, which at the time had a substantially greater amount of processing clout, us Brits were struggling with computers with very limited resources indeed. Back then almost all kids could program their computers with a varying degree of skill. My own programming abilities were okay – my BASIC programming code was horribly inelegant and messy, but it usually worked – in the end. Since these golden days of the dawn of the home computer age, things have changes in many ways, some for the better, but many for the worse. School children have not been taught programming for years; instead computer studies lessons are mainly in how to use Microsoft Office or other proprietary applications. This was until as recently as 2012, when a charitable organisation called the Raspberry Pi Foundation was established. They are a not for profit group aiming to promote children learning programming by using a Raspberry Pi computer - a cheap and easy to use personal computer, which has just been updated to its fourth incarnation. Raspberry Pi computers are a partial return to simple, easy to use and learn computers; in spirit very similar to the original Sinclair ZX Spectrum, although in reality many magnitudes more powerful. It has been commented that the new model 4 Raspberry Pi is actually more powerful that the Cray 1 Supercomputer, which, in 1976 was the most powerful computer on the planet. The photo above shows my own Raspberry Pi 3 model B+ - it is inside the small black box a little smaller than a kitchen matchbox next to the monitor. I use it as my backup computer; it runs a version of Linux designed for the Raspberry Pi. I will be upgrading it to the new model 4 in due course. Click on the photo above for a larger view.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association, firstly a report from Barnehurst ward:- "Yet another week goes by and no burglaries on Barnehurst Ward so good news there. We have just had one incident of vehicle crime, this took place in Twigg Close on Tuesday 25th June 2019 at 2.00pm. A Grey Yamaha Vity Motorbike Registration number LY62 GJO was stolen from outside the victim's property. The victim heard the alarm sound and on looking out he saw the motorbike being driven away, the lock to the bike had also been broken. The suspect riding the bike was wearing a brown Nike fleece type jacket and was not wearing a helmet. Three other suspects on motorbikes were seen driving off too. If you have any Information regarding this Incident please contact us. Our next community contact session is on Tuesday 2nd July 2019 at 11.00am, Barnehurst Golf Club". Belvedere ward:- "The team have visited the Smerdon Centre in Lumley Close in relation to damage to the roof that was caused recently and have also been patrolling around Nuxley Road and the Albert Road park area as we have been informed that there are incidents of criminal damage (in the park) and youths gaining access to the rooftops of certain shops. These patrols will continue for the foreseeable future as these incidents appear to be continuing. We were able to return a found wallet to the owner recently – many thanks to those helpful members of the public that were kind enough to approach the team to hand the found item to us. Happy to report that the wallet was not stolen, just lost. The team witnessed an off road bike being driven in Halt Robin Road and Lower Road last weekend, the rider of which refused to stop and speak to us. The team believe we have identified the rider and will be visiting his home address in the coming days. We have had a report of a strong cannabis smell lingering around Battle Road / Stanmore Road / Glendale Road. We have been unable to place where it is coming from yet. If anyone has any ideas or know where it is emanating please get in touch". Bexleyheath ward:- "There has been no reports of burglaries or attempted burglaries on the ward Along Martin Dene Bexleyheath there was a report of a theft from motor vehicle that seemed to have happened overnight between Tuesday 18/06/2019 & Wednesday 19/06/2019; A theft of purse was reported along the Broadway Bexleyheath on Wednesday 19/06/2019. No exact time or location was given. There has been three report of phones being taken. One was taken from the victims pocket in TKMAX, reported on Saturday 22/06/2019. Another one reported stolen from Costa Coffee shop in the Broadway on the same day – Saturday 22/06/2019. The others had their phone stolen along Belvedere Road Bexleyheath on Thursday 20/06/2019. Phone was taken from victims hand whilst suspect was riding a bike. There was also a report of cash taken from the victims pocket on Sunday 23/06/2019 in the Lidl Store in Bexleyheath; Thursday 20/06/2019 - Four males stopped by the bowling alley Bexleyheath and one was found to be in possession of cannabis. Also a PND was also issued for possession of cannabis which was also by the Bowling alley. On Tuesday evening the ward panel meeting took place and new ward priorities have now been set, these are now as follows: - Tackle Drug Dealing along Methuen Road, Hawthorn Road, Oaklands Road, & Sherbrooke Close; - ASB with bikes/youths along Braeside Close and Bursted Woods including the surrounding roads; - An increase use of social media regarding information around theft of purses along the Broadway. The team regularly conduct patrols along drug hot spot areas and ASB areas on the ward and conduct regular stops and searches where necessary". Crayford ward:- "Tools were stolen from a blue Peugeot 307 whilst parked at Tower Retail Park on Monday 17th June at 11.55. A white Mercedes Sprinter (number plate YF18FXW) was stolen from Crayford Way in the early hours of Friday 21st June, no keys were used. Between 22.00 on Friday 21st June and Sunday 22nd June at 07.00 a wing mirror which had been turned in on a Citroen whilst parked at Perry Street was forcefully kicked off. Criminal damage was caused to five vehicles whilst parked at Bookers Cash and Carry on Monday 24th June, it is believed that the suspects of this were going to rob other vehicles. On Wednesday 26th June between 19.00-19.05 there was an attempted robbery in Watling Street, the male was walking towards London Road when he was approached by two Males on a moped who attempted to rob him. Number plates RF66ONB were stolen from Swale Motor Group at Thames Road on between 17.30 on Thursday 20th June and 08.30 on Friday 21st June. These plates are registered to a grey three door Fiesta. Criminal damage was caused to vehicles parked at Crayford Industrial Estate by males in a black Volkswagen on Monday 24th June at 12.30. In the early hours of Monday 24th June a suspect attempted to turn and push away a motorcycle parked in Woodside Road, luckily it was well secured. The Crayford Ward Panel meeting was held at Vintage Lindy Lou's on Tuesday 25th June, our thanks to Fay for refreshments. The new ward promises are Anti-social behaviour and preventing burglary. There will be no community contact sessions for the next two weeks". Erith ward:- "We spoke about scams and took questions from members of the public in Erith Library. This small event went well and we will be looking at doing this again soon. Weapon sweeps have been carried out across Erith. Nothing of note has been found which is a good thing. The next Community Contact Session is at Erith Costa Coffee on Saturday 29th June 2019 at 5pm. Crimes of note - Theft from motor vehicle Tuesday 18/06/2019 Bexley Road; Theft from motor vehicle Thursday 20/06/2019 James Watt Way; Criminal Damage motor vehicle Thursday 20/06/2019 Maximfeldt Road; Theft from motor vehicle Monday 24/06/2019 Vickers Road; Theft from motor vehicle Sunday; 23/06/2019 Fraser House, Fraser Road; Theft of motor vehicle Monday 24/06/2019; C/Dam Vehicle Sunday 23/06/2019 Erith Road; Theft of motor vehicle Tuesday 25/06/2019 Compton Place; Theft of MV Wednesday 26/06/2019 Arran Close". Northumberland Heath ward:- "PCSO Lorraine has been conducting patrols on Bexley Road in relation to an increase of ASB, She has also visited the affected venues and gathered CCTV footage and liaised with local schools and managed to identify 3 of the main youths causing this ASB. Joint home visits will be arranged in conjunction with a member of the Bexley council ASB team. There have been no burglaries on the ward this week. This is good news, however Please do remember to keep doors and windows locked and secured when you leave your premises. In the warmer weather it is more likely your windows are open, so just be mindful to remember to check your property from top to bottom and make sure all windows are secure. There have been a number of Motor vehicle crimes of note as follows: Friday 21st June there was criminal damage to a motor vehicle parked on Swanton Road; Sunday 23rd June there was criminal damage to three motor vehicle parked on Belmont Road. (same suspect caused all 3); Monday 24th June a Grey Ford Transit Van was stolen from Swanton Road; Monday 24th June a Blue Honda Motorbike was stolen from Brooke street. Our next community contact session is on Thursday 4th July at 11am in the Mill Road Library, please do come along and meet a member of the team and discuss any issues or concerns you have, or just pop in and say hello".

Slade Green and Northend ward:- "There was an attempted break in at St Pauls Primary school overnight on Weds 19th June. Entry wasn't gained but damage was caused to one of the doors. CCTV enquiries have been negative. 2 criminal damage to vehicles have been reported. Overnight on June 19th a van in Craydene Road had its locks damaged in a possible attempted break in. And overnight on Friday June 21st a vehicle had deliberate scratch marks made to the bodywork in Fern Close. No suspects at this time. PCs Mark and James saw 2 motorbikes being ridden with no licence plates on Sunday evening in Bridge Road. After a short chase one of the males was caught and arrested and the bikes recovered. The other male has been identified and will be arrested in the coming days. A great bit of team work from both PCs again. PCSO Mark attended the St Augustines Summer fete last Saturday with many people enjoying the various stalls, bouncy castle and BBQ".  Thamesmead East ward:- "Burglaries: Good news, no burglaries this week. Crime Prevention - Close and lock all your doors and windows, even if you're going out for a few minutes. Photograph and keep a detailed inventory of each item of jewellery and keep it in a separate place. Remain vigilant at all times. Motor Vehicle Crimes: Theft of Motor Vehicle, between the hours of 06:30 am of Saturday 15/06/19 and 06:30am of Friday 21/06/19. A vehicle parked in Holstein Way was stolen; On Sunday 23/06/19 between the hours of 07:30 and 08:00 a vehicle parked in Wolvercote Road had the passenger window smashed and £7.00 taken; Theft of Motor Vehicle between the hours of 06:00pm on Saturday 22/06/19 and 02:30 pm Tuesday 25/06/19 - a vehicle parked in Maran Way was stolen; Theft from Motor Vehicle overnight between the hours of 05:30pm Tuesday 25/06/19 and 07:30am Wednesday 26/06/19 . A vehicle parked locked and secure in Glimpsing Green - a small amount of money was stolen. Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention - Did you know that your vehicle is like a shop window? If you can see ANY property left on view then so can a thief . Take it with you. Goof news - Following good work by PC Pruden, a female who failed to appear at court for various theft offences was arrested, appeared at court and was sentenced to 18 weeks". West Heath ward:- "Good news to start with this week, no burglaries have been reported. On Saturday June 22nd PCs Mo and Gill arrested a male wanted on recall to prison. A second arrest of a male was made in relation to harassment on Monday June 23rd. Once again we have been hit with several Motor Vehicle crimes. A ford Fiesta was stolen from the Pantiles between 2am and 7am on Thursday June 20th. Theft from a motor vehicle in Gypsy Road on Saturday June 22nd. The victim discovered the car had been rifled through and cash to the value of £5 was taken. A similar incident took place in Harvel Crescent on Saturday June 22nd when the victim discovered their car had been entered by an unknown suspect but nothing had been taken. On Monday this week PCSOs from West Heath, Crook Log and East Wickham wards attended 'Raising the Flag for Armed Forces Day 2019' which took place outside the Civic Centre in Bexleyheath. The Mayor was in attendance along with other dignitaries to give our thanks and support to past and present members of the Armed Forces".

The end video this week is from popular YouTube channel Hub Nut, by motoring journalist Ian Seabrook, which specialises in videos of old and unloved cars such as the Austin Allegro, Vauxhall Chevette, and even the three wheeled Invacar. The video features the 2019 Bromley Pageant of Motoring. Comments to hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

The pier.

The photos above were taken by me on Erith Pier on Friday afternoon - click on either for a larger version. The upper photo shows the general cargo carrier the M.V Elke W, which had just departed the wharf at ADM Oils in Lower Belvedere, and was heading down river on a 24 hour journey to the port of Harlingen in The Netherlands. The lower photo shows the "dog leg" part of Erith Pier; bearing in mind the wonderful weather on Friday, it was surprising that there were not more people there.  Erith Pier is the longest pier on the River Thames, and a wonderful place to be on a warm and sunny day. It is a bit of a pity that Erith Pier os not better known outside of the local area; I feel if properly handled and publicised, it could well become a bit of a tourist attraction. It could do with a public toilet and a small cart selling tea, coffee and soft drinks, to be open during the summer months. I do know that an application was made some years ago by a local couple to open such a cart, but the council turned them down. Perhaps now is the time for a new application? What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Some of the most important and interesting stories that I feature on the Maggot Sandwich are those sent to me by readers; contrary to some opinions, I do not find every story myself. In some cases the people who supply the information prefer to remain anonymous, and I will always respect this; other times the person is happy to be named. Earlier this week I had an Email from a chap called Jerry who told me about a fascinating and very worthwhile project that has recently been set up. A significant breakthrough in cancer research has been made, which uses the processing power of mobile phones to carry out complex calculations distributed over hundreds or thousands of mobile devices. The technology will be used by researchers from Imperial College London hoping to identify how existing and new drugs can be used to treat cancer. The project, Drug Repositioning Using Grids of Smartphones (DRUGS), marks the official launch of the app in the UK and its first collaboration with a UK university. It previously launched in Australia. Star Wars actor John Boyega is among those encouraging the public to get involved by downloading the app and ‘donating’ the processing power of their idle smartphones while they sleep. In an interview with the Metro news website, Dr Kirill Veselkov, who is leading the team at Imperial College London’s department of surgery and cancer, said: "We are currently generating huge volumes of health data around the world every day, but just a fraction of this is being put to use. ‘By harnessing the processing power of thousands of smartphones, we can tap into this invaluable resource and look for clues in the datasets. Ultimately, this could help us to make better use of existing drugs and find more effective combinations of drugs tailored to patients, thereby improving treatments." Scientists from the university have designed an algorithm that breaks down large datasets into small chunks. Through DreamLab, these smaller chunks will be analysed by a network of smartphones to try to find links in the data. This could help identify more effective combinations of existing drugs to treat cancer and work out the best treatment for individuals. While this data processing could be performed by a computer, it would take much longer. A desktop computer with an eight-core processor running 24 hours a day would take 300 years to process the data, the developers said. However, a network of 100,000 smartphones running six hours a night could do the same amount of work in three months. A new device – if fully charged and plugged in – could run up to 60 calculations and solve up to 24,000 problems in six hours. Researchers believe that in the long run this work could speed up access to effective drugs and enable tailored treatments for patients. Andrew Dunnett, Director of The Vodafone Foundation, said: “DreamLab is a great example of the transformative power of connectivity and technology. This innovative app gives everyone the chance to play a part in the fight against cancer while they sleep. We hope DreamLab will significantly increase the speed at which Imperial College and other researchers are able to make breakthroughs in cancer research, ultimately saving lives". Whilst the concept of distributed computing is quite new in the mobile arena, it is not new to desktop computers. I was involved for quite some time with the SETI at Home project, which used a computers processing powers whilst idle to analyse radio signal data gathered from a world - wide network of radio telescopes to look for radio signals possibly of extra terrestrial origin.  The concept is the same, although the methods of operation and delivery vary somewhat. Using idle smart phones to beat cancer has got to be a very good thing indeed. Thanks to Jerry for bringing this story to my attention. 

Regarding submitting stories for inclusion on the Maggot Sandwich, some guidelines; any story needs to be with me by the Thursday night prior to publication on Sunday; this is to allow me to check the factual accuracy of the story, and to edit and reformat the text where necessary. Please send text in plain Email format - not in Microsoft Word, as contrary to popular opinion, Word is not a standard format (a word document contains a lot of hidden metadata that has to be stripped out prior to being uploaded into the Blogger interface). I do occasionally get stories sent to me on a Sunday morning, with a request that it be included in the latest update - which is published early on each Sunday afternoon. Unless there is a really compelling reason, such stories will be carried over to the next edition. Every Maggot Sandwich update takes around ten hours to research, write, edit and error check, all of which is carried out in my spare time. I do not accept advertising or any kind of goods in kind for any promotion - the blog is entirely run as a free local news and information portal with no political or economic bias.

The proposed Energy Park outlined in the picture above - click on it for a larger view - would be located at Norman Road in Belvedere, on land to the west of the existing Riverside Resource Recovery Facility and would form an important part of London’s energy and resource management infrastructure. As well as generating clean energy from energy recovery, anaerobic digestion (for local food and green waste) and solar panels, the proposed Energy Park would also incorporate up to 20 MWh of battery storage to supply additional power to meet London’s demand at peak times.

I am very concerned about the cruise ship terminal that is being created at Enderby Wharf in Greenwich; readers may wonder why my concerns are being directed at a location outside of my normal coverage area, and one that is more properly covered by Darryl Chamberlain of the excellent 853 Blog; well the reasons are actually rather straightforward. As you may already be aware, there is a long established campaign to force the operators of the cruise ship terminal to install shore - side power for the visiting cruise ships, so that they do not have to operate their internal electrical generators to power the vessels whilst in port. The campaigners say that for each cruise ship in port. and running its' generators will create as much pollution as 680 lorries over a 24 hour period. The terminal operators do not want to install shore side power for the cruise ships, due to the additional cost this would create. In an interview in the News Shopper earlier last week, campaigner Laura Eyres said of a cruise ship that docked at the Enderby Wharf port over the recent Bank Holiday weekend that :- "Having campaigned about the plans for a cruise port over the past few months, it was quite a rude awakening to see one of this size parked in Greenwich on the morning of the local election results. The ship ran its engines constantly over the bank holiday and we were horrified to see the amount of smoke it was generating. The smoke blew across to homes, a new children’s playground at New Capital Quay and people just out by the river enjoying the sunshine. Our petition continues to rise steadily with several hundred signatures every week. We noticed a peak in signatures in the period after the bank holiday weekend. We have amassed widespread support not only from residents across the whole borough, but also from MPs on both sides of the river and all the local parties. The cruise terminal was a pivotal issue in the local elections. We have also written to the new leader of Greenwich Council offering our congratulations and asking for a meeting.” The petition currently stand at around 6,500 signatures. One factual error in Laura Eyres makes in her statement is that she confuses the ship running its generators with the ship running its engines - the two things are mutually exclusive. No ship would run its main engines in port, due to the very high cost - their fuel consumption is eye wateringly high. Instead they run shore - side generators, which whilst still using a lot of fuel, are somewhat more efficient than the main engines, especially when all they are going is providing electricity, rather than motive power. I have noticed several journalists making the same mistake. I digress. The problem which this situation creates in the local area covered by the Maggot Sandwich, is that when the cruise liner port at Enderby Wharf is in full operation, a far larger number of cruise liners will be coming up the River Thames and into London, and in so doing will pass Slade Green, Erith, Lower Belvedere and Abbey Wood on their way to Greenwich. Whilst travelling up the river they will not be operating their electrical generators, but running their main motive power engines, with the "full fat" pollution that this will bring - and don't forget that unlike the residents of Greenwich, who are supposed to be benefitting from the increased trade that tourists will bring to the area, residents in the towns that line the banks of the Thames on the route will have all of the pollution and none of the benefits - something that seems to have been overlooked in the whole environmental debate until now. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

There is a change in the Maggot Sandwich this week - although you would not be able to tell; this week the Blog update has been carried out  on a different computer. Normally I use my trusty Apple iMac to create the content for the Blog, but this week I am using my new "backup computer" in the shape of my new Raspberry Pi Model 3 B+ which is now resident in the office in Pewty Acres. The primary role of the Raspberry Pi is to be a very cheap (£35) credit card sized, flexible computer for children to learn programming, much in the way the kids of my generation learned to program the early 8 bit computers of the day such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and the Commodore 64. I was pretty much self taught in computing; when I was at school, computer studies was a very new field, and generally maths teachers were given the job of teaching pupils about computers. Some were excellent, many had little training and less aptitude for the job. At my school, a fair number of pupils knew way more than the computer studies teacher. I recall the time when my friend Roy and I rewrote the CP/M operating system disk on the school’s solitary Research Machines 380Z so that instead of saying on boot up “Research Machines 380Z Basic (C) RM 1979” it said “Washing Machines 380Z Basic (C) Hugh and Roy”. The teacher went ballistic – saying “you’ve broken the computer!” and banning us from the computer room for a month. He could not grasp the fact that we had copied the operating system onto a fresh floppy disc, and only made changes to the copy. This kind of innocent (and sometimes not so innocent) tinkering was a key way we learned how to program and also modify computer hardware. It also helped that this all happened at the beginning of the home computer revolution in 1981/82. The BBC Micro, the Sinclair ZX81, and a little later the ZX Spectrum, and a host of other pioneering machines were making their way into the bedrooms of children all over the UK. Compared with kids in the USA, who had Apple II‘s and IBM PC’s, which at the time had a substantially greater amount of processing clout, us Brits were struggling with computers with very limited resources indeed. Back then almost all kids could program their computers with a varying degree of skill. My own programming abilities were okay – my BASIC programming code was horribly inelegant and messy, but it usually worked – in the end. Since these golden days of the dawn of the home computer age, things have changes in many ways, some for the better, but many for the worse. Until relatively recently, school children have not been taught programming for years; instead computer studies lessons are mainly in how to use Microsoft Office or other proprietary applications. Little consideration has been given to how computers actually work, or how a student can develop their own software. If lucky, they may have learned a bit of simple HTML, but that’s about as far as things went for many years. Now, with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, today's children are able to learn modern programming languages such as Scratch and Python on extremely affordable hardware - hopefully leading to a future generation of programmers and software developers.

I very rarely comment on stories that make the national press; the reason for this is that if it has been covered in the professional press (who are far better equipped than I) then there is little need for me to add anything. Secondly; national stories are really outside of my main remit - that is, to highlight issues affecting residents in and around the Northern wards of the London Borough of Bexley. This week I am making a notable exception; as regular readers will be aware, I have been quite strident in my coverage of moves to restrict the usage of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in high street betting shops. I first wrote of my opposition to FOBT's back in January 2014, which you can read by clicking here. I am glad to say that finally the government have taken what appears to be appropriate action, and are limiting the maximum stake to be gambled to £2 per go from the current £100 stake. Bookmaking company William Hill have announced that the reduction in maximum FOBT stake will impact their annual profits, and they could fall by between £70 and £100 million, and could well lead to betting shops being closed with consequent job losses. To my mind this just shows how much money the gambling organisations make out of some of the poorest and most vulnerable in society. It is no wonder that one can directly correlate the number of betting shops against the most deprived areas of the UK - something that I have covered in detail in the past. Gambling addiction is a specific and savage curse, mostly on the poorest section of the community. There are an estimated 430,000 people who consider themselves addicts, and 2.3 million who admit they are “at risk”. Almost half of those who use the machines admit to being addicted. Some surveys put this proportion as high as 80 percent. I know what will happen - the large gambling corporations will merely offshore their FOBT enterprises - in order to circumvent the changes in the regulations, which at this stage only cover physical gambling machines located in high street shops. All of the big gambling companies have web based presences, usually located in offshore tax havens, and not subject to British law. I would anticipate that they will create new "opportunities" to play web based virtual FOBT machines, thus bypassing legislation changes. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Earlier I referred to "proper" journalist Darryl Chamberlain of the 853 Blog; Darryl has recently covered a story which may well be of interest to Maggot Sandwich readers; if you don't already follow the 853 Blog as I do, I would urge you to do so. Darryl has written a piece on the forthcoming two new Woolwich ferries, which are scheduled to replace the three very old and worn out vessels that currently run the service, and are constantly breaking down - you can see a photo of one of the old vessels above - click on the photo for a larger view. The two new ferries are currently under construction in Poland, and have just been launched. They still require interior fit - out and painting, but they are already completely recognisable. You can read Darryl's article on the forthcoming new Woolwich ferries by clicking here.

Now for the weekly local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly from Barnehurst ward:- "This is our first report in regards to the new Barnehurst ward boundaries and we start with some excellent news with no crimes of note reported. We are slowly getting to know our new patch and have been speaking to residents concerning local concerns as well as taking over ongoing issues from the Colyers team. We would like to thank PC Mo Bangura, PC Mike Cuell and PCSO Muriel Edwards for the work they have done over the years in keeping the ward safe. The new team consists of experienced officers with over 50 years of policing service between them. Our pet hates amongst others are Burglaries, drugs and ASB and we will work tirelessly in combating these using all the available resources at our disposal, including working closely with the local authority and housing associations. However we need your help, Neighbourhood Watch plays an important part in keeping any ward safe and we would like to achieve 100 percent coverage. If you know anyone in the ward that is interested in becoming a Coordinator, please ask them to email the Neighbourhood Watch office at bexwatch-office@btconnect.com to see if their street is covered or feel free to contact the team. We will be actively recruiting new members over the summer months and introducing ourselves to the current Coordinators over the next couple of weeks. Finally a big thank you to the Barnehurst ward Coordinators who remained with us after the boundary changes. We will be at Barnehurst Golf Course on Friday 18th May at 11am. Please feel free to join us for a chat about any local issues that may be of concern or just pop along to say Hi". Belvedere ward:- "Thursday 10th May was the Belvedere ward panel, which was once again well attended with some new faces. The panel met with the 2 newly elected ward Councillors – Sally Hinkley and Dave Putson. The team are keen to work with the councillors to help keep Belvedere safe. The following priorities were set by the panel; 1) Motor-vehicle crime; 2) Drugs; 3) Anti Social Behaviour (ASB). We held another anti-theft number plate screw event on Friday with the AA fitting and giving out 37 sets of anti-theft screws. We utilised the CCTV van, parking it on various hot spots on the ward at the weekend. This turned out to be a huge success, stopping 38 people and obtaining 16 intelligence reports so we shall look to repeat this tactic over coming weeks. We also stopped a van on Dylan Road by Belvedere Train Station that we suspected of fly tipping – all turned out to be in order and documentation was checked. An off road bike which had been pictured and posted on social media by the Thamesmead Team riding in Lesnes Abbey park has been identified and the rider has been issued with a Section 59 warning. The section 59 warning gives officers the powers to seize a vehicle acting in an anti-social manner. The team have issued 7 so far this Spring and will be using this tactic to reduce vehicle ASB. There has been an 83 percent reduction in vehicle ASB calls this year compared to last year so we are confident our approach is working and making the roads and public spaces in Belvedere safer". Bexleyheath ward:- "As you may or may not be aware, all the wards on the Borough had had their ward boundaries changed. Double-check your ward at https://www.met.police.uk/your-area/. As a result we have taken on new streets as well as losing some and are in the process of trying to get to grips with the changes, our team name has also changed and we are now called Bexleyheath SNT. We are hoping to make contact with the Neighbourhood Watches on the new streets that we have taken on to introduce ourselves and to make sure they have the correct details needed to make contact with us. Our team contact number has remained the same, but if you wish to contact us via email, our new one is Bexleyheath.SNT@met.pnn.police.uk. We have been informed the original team mailbox will still be able to receive emails but have no ideal for how long.  In relation to what has been going on the ward. Over the last week, we have had no reported burglaries which is great news for us all. We recently had a meeting with parents and partners from the Council in relation to issues with persistent Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) issues on the ward and we are targeting those who are known to us who persistently cause ASB. We had been informed that the Car Park by the Marriott Hotel was very heavily graffitied. We have attended and can confirm it was as bad as we were told. The team shall be conducting patrols in the car park and are looking into what has been done. We are holding a Bike Marking Event on Saturday 9th June along the Broadway between 10am and 2pm. Please feel free to pop along with your bikes and get them marked, also spread the word to others to also come along and get their bikes property marked. If you would like to contact us, please feel free to make contact via email, twitter or over the phone - details above. For crime prevention advice, please look at the Met Police website which does have information that you may find useful. In an emergency please dial 999 and 101 for non-urgent reporting". Crayford ward:- "First of all, welcome to the residents who are now part of Crayford ward. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook. On 11th May a wallet containing cash cards and driving licence were stolen from Crayford High Street and the cards were fraudulently used to obtain goods. On 12th May a vehicle was interfered with whilst parked in Green Walk. Between 13.00 on 12th May and 10.30 on 13th May there was an attempted burglary at the newly built houses in Crayford Way, a similar offence was committed at the newly built houses in Iron Mill Lane between 5th and 14th May, whereby entry was attempted in to a house and tools were stolen from locked containers. A red Renault Clio was stolen from Wyatt Road between 6pm on Sunday 13th May and 2pm on Monday 14th May. On 10th May between 5.30 and 6pm a Carrera bicycle that was locked to a bike rack outside Sports Direct at Tower Retail Park was stolen. Overnight on 10th May the nearside window to a Mercedes was smashed whilst parked on the road in Claremount Crescent. There have been shop lifting offences at Tower Retail Park. This week officers from our team issued a Section 59 warning to the rider of a moped that had been pulling continuous wheelies in front of a bus, endangering not just himself but the passengers on the bus if the bus had to take avoiding action. Two mobile phone tickets were given out as well as a speeding ticket. Many people were also given words of advice about their driving. Anti-social behaviour has become an increasing issue in quite a few areas around Crayford and has involved several vehicles causing litter by discarding take away packaging and food and drinks as well as nitrous oxide canisters. We are working closely with our partners at London Borough of Bexley to find the best course of action to deal with this as well as other offences that may have been caused. We have been given several number plates of those concerned and will be following this up. Please accept our apologies that our coffee with cops on Wednesday 16th May had to be cancelled at the last moment as the team were urgently required elsewhere. We will be at the Age Concern coffee morning on 25th May at Crayford Library between 11.30-12.30 and will be happy to listen if you have any concerns you would like to speak with us about". Erith ward:- "We have had quite a few Theft of and from Motor vehicles over the last week. Please see the links below for advice. No Residential burglary this week. A few crimes to report from this week: Criminal Damage 09/05/2018 Avenue Road; Theft of cycle 07/05/2018 James Watt Way; Theft of cycle 09/05/2018 Parkspring Court, Erith High Street; Theft from Motor Vehicle 10/05/2018 Riverdale Road; Theft of Motor Vehicle 13/05/2018 Christ Church Vicarage, Victoria Road; Theft of Motor Vehicle 14/05/2018 Erith Road; Shoplifting £200 15/05/2018 Wickes Building Supplies Ltd, Fraser Road". Northumberland Heath ward:- "Good news, we have had no burglaries or motor vehicle crime reported to us over the last week. We are now covering parts of the former Colyers ward and getting to grips with the area. The team are attending St. Fidelis school on Friday afternoon this week for an Aspirations day. The pupils will get to talk to a number of people from different professions to find out what their jobs entail on a daily basis. We have been working on the investigation of two crimes this week .One investigation into the criminal damage of a car windscreen which took place in Collindale Avenue last month, a suspect was identified by police for this and interviewed under caution at the police station. The other investigation, following up from the warrant we executed in Brook Street last week, two further suspects have been interviewed under caution at the police station". Slade Green and North End ward:- "There was a burglary overnight on the 11/12 May in Hazel Drive. An empty property being renovated had power tools stolen. Also overnight on 12/13 May there were 2 vehicle crimes on the Frobisher Road estate. One vehicle had a window smashed and another vehicle was stolen from the estate. During the weekend there were hub caps stolen from a vehicle at the John Pye auction site in Manor Road. A male was arrested by Mark and James last week - he was wanted for failing to attend a drug assessment. He has been charged and awaits an appointment to attend court. Mark and James found a knife in Erith Town centre last week. It is unclear if it was used in any crime but at least it is one more dangerous weapon off the streets. If you were not already aware, the recent ward boundary changes have had very little impact on our ward. We have lost the bottom part of Eversley Avenue and have gained Britannia Close in Erith (which we always thought was ours anyway!). Our ward name has slightly altered also to Slade Green and Northend. This has not affected our team email address with any correspondence to NorthendSNT@met.police.uk still coming through to us. We are not sure if that is due to change in future but we will keep you updated". Thamesmead East ward:- "Burglaries - On Wednesday 09/05/18 between the hours of 07:05pm and 07:30pm on Thursday 10/05/18 a pedal cycle was stolen from the communal area of a block of flats in Fairway Drive.  Motor Vehicle Crimes - Between the hours of 08:30 pm on Saturday 12/05/18 and 02:00 pm on Sunday 13/05/18 a pair of aluminium vehicle ramps were stolen from a vehicle Recovery lorry which was parked in the car parking area of Alsike Road. A motor cycle which had broken down on Eastern Way, which was left locked and secure by the owner was stolen between the hours of 02:00pm Saturday 12/05/18 and 11:00am Sunday 13/05/18 when the owner and a friend returned to the location to recover his bike and found that it had been removed by person(s) unknown. The victim contacted the council to find out if they had removed it but there was no trace. Have a Say event. Thursday 24/05/18 between the hours of 11:00 am and 12:00 pm the team will be attending The Lakeside Medical Centre, Yarnton Way. An opportunity for members of the community who prefer face- to – face contact, to speak with a Dedicated Ward Officer".

The end video this week finishes off pretty much where we started; it is some drone footage taken on and around Erith Pier. It gives a very good idea of just how large the pier is - the longest on the River Thames by quite some margin. Please feel free to leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.