The 99.

Drivers who operate the 99 bus service between Bexleyheath and Woolwich, and back the other way are unhappy. In 2011, and then later in 2016 the very popular bus route was upgraded with brand new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 double decker buses such as the example that you can see in the photograph above, which was taken by me last summer. These were modern, comfortable, well designed and had a flywheel based energy conservation system installed, which enabled the bus engine to shut off at bus stops, or when halted in traffic. The system is called Gyrodrive. When the bus comes to a halt, the engine cuts out completely. When the bus subsequently pulls away from the bus stop, it travels for a few seconds in complete silence, before the diesel engine cuts back in. This saves fuel and cuts exhaust emissions. The 99 bus route covers quite a large area, and has a couple of fairly steep hills on the way, the most challenging of which is Bostall Hill where the road passes though Bostall Heath. The Enviro 400 buses equipped with the Gyrodrive system were more than capable of managing this journey with relative ease. Recently the bus company Arriva - which operates many of the routes in South East London and North Kent, decided to replace the Enviro 400 buses with another model. These were sourced second hand from the Midlands (I have heard that Wolverhampton was the original location for the second hand fleet - but if you know better, please let me know). The "new" second had buses are Wright Gemini 2 bodied VDL DB300's, which do not feature Gyrodrive. They are an older design than the Enviro 400 models that they now replace. I have spoken to several drivers on the 99 bus route, and they are very unhappy with the Wright Gemini buses. They are slow and under powered when compared to the previous Enviro 400's, and they have absolutely terrible suspension, with almost no damping. They bang and crash over the slightest road imperfection, and have a very bumpy, unrefined and uncomfortable ride. One driver commented to me that the buses were so underpowered that he almost felt like asking the passengers to get out and push when coming up Bostall Hill. On top of this, the second hand buses are extremely unreliable. Last week I personally saw two broken down Wright Gemini route 99 buses, one of which had stopped right on the junction with Bexley Road and the Fish Roundabout in the centre of Erith. One driver told me that the rate of breakdowns was so bad that the bus garage in Plumstead had no spare buses - the reserves were already in use, covering for the units that had already broken down. It seems to me that Arriva may have been guilty of some false economy when purchasing these used buses. I have no idea where the Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 buses have gone - whether Arriva have deployed them onto another route, or sold them on to another operator. If you have any information, please get in contact with me by emailing me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

After the non - story fiasco last week that featured Erith's KFC Drive Through being featured in a number of national tabloid newspapers, including the Sun, this week The Sun have featured a further non - story in respect of Erith McDonald's Drive Through, which is located directly opposite the KFC. on the corner of Manor Road and James Watt Way. The News Shopper ran a story which they apparently sold on to the Sun, which concerned claims that a fourteen year old girl and her friend had been to buy food at the McDonald's outlet, and that they had been told that they would have to eat outside, as they were wearing school uniform, and the Erith restaurant policy is to only allow two school children in the building at any one time - and two school children were already in the place. The reasoning behind this is that the Erith McDonald's apparently has had some severe problems with anti social behaviour, mainly caused by local school kids. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case - and on Monday when the incident is alleged to have taken place, it was indeed very cold outside, but the news report contains one significant error; as you will see in the screen capture above - click on it to see a larger version - The Sun article clearly claims that the staff at the Erith McDonald's "forced a teenage schoolgirl to eat her food in the snow outside". The only thing is - it was cold last Monday, but there was no snow whatsoever - that did not arrive until late on Tuesday. Once again the Sun is not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. I am not covering the snow we have had recently, as more than enough has been written about it elsewhere already.

It comes as no surprise to me that The London Borough of Bexley did not win, or even come close to winning the London Borough of Culture award for 2019. Twenty two boroughs, including Bexley entered the competition, with Waltham Forest coming first, and with Barking and Dagenham coming second. The London Borough of Brent will take the prize in 2022. A prize of £1.35 million has been awarded to Waltham Forest; among the projects which will now get funding are a laser-light installation in Epping Forest, a two-day film festival in Leytonstone in honour of Sir Alfred Hitchcock — the local boy-turned-Hollywood director, and a 50 square metre solar-powered light show on Walthamstow Marshes. The borough has built a reputation for the arts in recent years as artists priced out of inner London have moved in. The Waltham Forest council-owned Grade II listed William Morris Gallery, which was home to the designer for almost 10 years, was named Museum of the Year in 2013 and the borough is also home to a regular art trail where residents transform their homes into galleries and open them up to visitors. Its bid was supported by names including choreographer Sir Matthew Bourne, who grew up in Walthamstow, and Blur front man Damon Albarn, who lived in Leytonstone. Against such strong competition Bexley did not stand much of a chance, though this may well change in the future. Bexley and the arts have until recently not exactly been great bed fellows. The council does little to support the arts, and most art related enterprise is undertaken by local residents in a voluntary capacity - Erith Playhouse being a prime example. It is fortunate that local arts group The Exchange have now been formed, and since the early summer of last year have been working to promote the arts and local involvement. The Exchange were the people behind the Erith Lighthouse pop - up restaurant (which received much praise from the London Evening Standard at the time) and the associated artwork that was featured in Erith Pier. They have now taken on a truly massive project to refurbish and repurpose the historic Carnegie Library in Walnut Tree Road, and to convert it into an arts and community hub, with space for sole trader businesses to use. I am hopeful that in a few years, that The London Borough of Bexley will lead in creativity and the arts, and be in a position to win a future award.

Although not exactly local, this story strikes me as of being of interest to many readers. One of the most famous landmarks on the River Thames marks its 80th birthday in the next couple of weeks. HMS Belfast, now a floating museum on the River Thames next to Tower Bridge, was originally launched back on March 17th 1938. She was launched by Mrs Neville Chamberlain to the cheers of hundreds of spectators. Since then she has served in the Arctic Convoys, fought in the Korean War, travelled the world and, famously, played a key role at the D-Day landings. one of ten Town-class cruisers, began in December 1936. She was launched on St Patrick's Day 1938. Commissioned in early August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Belfast was initially part of the British naval blockade against Germany. In November 1939, Belfast struck a German mine and spent more than two years undergoing extensive repairs. Belfast returned to action in November 1942 with improved firepower, radar equipment, and armour. Belfast saw action escorting Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union during 1943 and in December 1943 played an important role in the Battle of North Cape, assisting in the destruction of the German warship Scharnhorst. In June 1944, Belfast took part in Operation Overlord supporting the Normandy landings. In June 1945, Belfast was redeployed to the Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet, arriving shortly before the end of the Second World War. Belfast saw further combat action in 1950–52 during the Korean War and underwent an extensive modernisation between 1956 and 1959. A number of further overseas commissions followed before Belfast entered reserve in 1963. In 1967, efforts were initiated to avert Belfast's expected scrapping and to preserve her as a museum ship. A joint committee of The Imperial War Museum, The National Maritime Museum, and The Ministry of Defence were established and then reported in June 1968 that preservation was practical. In 1971, the government decided against preservation, prompting the formation of the private HMS Belfast Trust to campaign for her preservation. The efforts of the Trust were successful, and the government transferred the ship to the Trust in July 1971. Brought to London, she was moored on the River Thames near Tower Bridge in the Pool of London. Opened to the public in October 1971, Belfast became a branch of The Imperial War Museum in 1978. A popular tourist attraction, Belfast receives over a quarter of a million visitors per year. As a branch of a national museum and part of the National Historic Fleet, Belfast is supported by The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, admissions income, and the museum's commercial activities. On 17th March, you can meet veterans from across HMS Belfast’s 80 year history and learn about what it was like to live and work at sea. A number of free events on board include the return of Signals at Sea, where families can learn how lights, radios, codes and flags were used to pass messages from ship to ship. You can also learn how to send your own name in Morse Code, as well as a new signal created specifically for the occasion. Amateur Radio group The Royal Navy Amateur Radio Society uses HMS Belfast as its' base, and operates out of the original ship's radio room. They are operating under a special event licence over the 80th birthday period, and they can often be heard on the 2 metre VHF band, calling on 145.500 - S20. The special callsign is GB8ØGGCN. You can discover more about HMS Belfast and her 80th birthday celebrations by clicking here.

Some of the feedback that I get from regular readers is related to technical content on the Maggot Sandwich. Some readers are not keen on it, and tend to skip the occasional technical subject that I write about, but a majority seem to like the technical articles. I am conscious that I cannot please everyone all of the time, and I try and mix and match technical articles with those of a more general and widespread appeal. I have had some positive feedback in the past regarding the articles I have written on technology failures and why they happened. Examples of this include the VHS versus Betamax war of the early 1980's and the well intentioned but ultimately doomed Capacitance Electronic Disk (CED) analogue video disk system. Another technology that emerged in the late 90's and early 2000's that was expected to revolutionise the way people rented and bought movies in the years before streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were created, but ultimately it failed at the first hurdle, and nowadays very few people are even aware that the system existed. Back in the day when VHS was still the market leading video format, and DVD was a relatively new invention. The film companies were getting very concerned that their long established business model could be in danger. The VHS market was a known, reliable money-spinner for studios. They knew that, around six months after the cinema release of a film, they could release it on video to rent, charging video hire shops up to £90 for a tape. Then, a few months on, they could charge £10 - £13 for a version to buy, the key difference being generally fewer adverts (save for an infamous VHS release of RoboCop from Virgin Video, with half an hour of adverts before the feature), and a smaller box. It all extended the financial life span of a film, and was a golden goose that many were wary of slaying. A US based electronics retailer and a law firm got together to come up with a new rival to the DVD format that would allow them to control how a rental disk was watched. That format was DIVX. Not the digital video codec – that was DivX – rather an alternative, disc-based video rental system that was launching at the same time as DVD. The idea of DIVX was that a disc would cost around $4.50 in the US, against the $25-30 retail price of a DVD. Then, once you played it in your DIVX player – you needed one of those too, and not a standard DVD deck – you had 48 hours to watch it. Ironically, it is the same kind of idea that sits behind digital video rental stores now, such as Sky Store and Google Play or Netflix. The DIVX disc would work for 48 hours, and you could extend this for an extra fee to get another two days of use from it. If you wanted to keep the film, and remove the restriction, you could pay again to upgrade it to a DVD Silver. Retailers were also set to release DIVX Gold discs (basically, bog standard DVDs), but none ever appeared, nor did the DIVX format ever leave the US. For starters, an assortment of retailers backed DIVX, thinking this would maintain the idea of getting two payments for a home format release from consumers (this was before they hatched on the idea of multiple special edition releases of the same film on DVD). Disney, Paramount, Universal and Fox all released titles on DIVX, with around 300 films ultimately made available onto the format. Most were pan and scan releases, lacking a widescreen option, with barely any of the special features that DVDs were being stuffed with. DIVX was clearly being aimed at casual movie watchers, rather than film fans - yet film fans set alarm bells ringing. Fan resistance was vehement against DIVX, and this was a very early example of an internet campaign against a planned format. The quality of DIVX releases was questioned, whilst there were fears that having more than one disc format would lead to consumer confusion. Furthermore, the DIVX system technically had the ability to feed back information over your telephone line as to what you were watching, and some questioned the Big Brother nature of that. That said, Netflix, Amazon etc do that by default now, and barely anyone bats an eyelid. Times have changed. DIVX ultimately failed in 1999, with the ability to view DIVX discs switched off in the summer of 2001. DVD had won the battle. With DVD victorious, so the rental window system ended in the US pretty much on the spot. Stores still offered DVD rentals, but of discs you could buy at an affordable price. More and more people opted to simply buy a film outright on day one, especially as the advent of internet shopping had brought with it some hefty discounts on discs. In the UK, the move away from rentals was slightly slower, held back by one or two video hire companies such as Blockbuster, and some of the film distributors still keen to hold onto some form of window. But then there was a cultural difference. Whereas the American market had regularly seen big titles, even on VHS, go straight to sell-through, in Britain, it was a novelty. It is ironic that, in its own way, rental has made a comeback, albeit through online, on-demand services that let you instantly ‘rent’ a film for a two-day period. But the catalyst there too has been a format change. If video to DVD brought an end to traditional rental and a move to us buying more physical copies of films, the hard disk and broadband-driven era is taking things back a little the other way. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Now for this weeks local safety and security updates from Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association. Firstly a report from Barnehurst ward:- "Barnehurst Ward have suffered a burglary and an attempted burglary in the past week. The burglary took place in Holmesdale Grove on Friday 23rd February. At 05.31pm the victim received a notification from the door bell system informing the victim there was a male at the front door. The male is seen to walk away to join another male at the front of the drive. Both males proceed to walk down the side alley. Moments later at 05.37 a grey Mercedes with blacked out windows appears from the alley and parks in front of the property for a few minutes, it reverses into alley and drives off at speed. The rear door to the property was found damaged and the window had been smashed. Entry was gained and an untidy search was found in the bedroom with items of jewellery of little value strewn across the bed. Nothing had been taken. One male was described to be white, wearing a black baseball cap, black coat, blue jeans and a red scarf was worn across the face. The second male was also white, wearing a black coat with the hood up, black jeans and trainers with a white sole. Also on the 23rd February at 02.00pm victim was at home when a loud noise was heard coming from the rear of the property. As the victim entered the kitchen, an Asian male was seen crouched down holding a crow bar in the rear garden. On seeing the victim he fled with another person exiting through a side gate onto the drive, direction from there is unknown. The Asian male was described as wearing a dark blue jacket and a dark blue woolly hat and was about 30 years old. It is believed both suspects were male. There has also been one theft of a motor vehicle which occurred on Tuesday 27th February whereby a grey Volkswagon Golf, Registration number VX 15 DZB was stolen from Hall Place Crescent. Our next coffee with cops will be held on Wednesday 7th March at 11.00pm in Barnehurst Golf Club. Please come along for a chat with the team. In the meantime stay safe, keep warm and look out for your elderly neighbours who may feel stranded due to the dangerous icy conditions outside. I’m sure some would appreciate a helping hand". Belvedere ward:- "Over the last week, A/PS Green and PC Holmes have been involved in three arrests. The first was in relation to a wanted male who we were alerted to in Erith Town Centre. This male was wanted for 2 separate offences and was further arrested for possession of cannabis which was in his possession at the time of his initial arrest. The second male was arrested in Ambrooke Road as he was wanted for several offences. Subsequently, Daniel Mills, aged 33 of Picardy Street, Belvedere was found guilty at Bromley magistrates Court on 26th February 2018 of making off without payment x 2, motor vehicle interference, possession of cannabis and failing to attend a drugs intervention programme. He was sentenced to 42 days imprisonment, 14 days on license, fined £415.00 and further costs to be paid to victims within the next six months. The third was in relation to a male who had failed to appear at court for environmental offences. He was arrested at his home address in Lower Belvedere. Whilst on patrol in Lower Road, A/PS Green and PCSO Worrall observed a blue quad bike parked on the pavement. Checks were carried out on the vehicle, and the owner of the bike was spoken to at length. Details have been recorded by the team, should this vehicle come to notice in the future. PCSO Worrall assisted Northumberland Heath ward officers in visiting victims of burglary and attempted burglary in Parsonage Manor Way and Matfield Road respectively. Neighbouring addresses at both locations were also visited in order to raise awareness of both incidents within the community. Finally, the team – assisted by officers from Northumberland Heath SNT, Colyers SNT and North End SNT conducted a drugs warrant in Brigstock Road. There were a quantity of drugs seized from the address and also other items discovered within the property. This investigation is currently ongoing". Christchurch ward:- "We are pleased to mention that their have not been any burglaries over the past week . We believe this is as a result of a number of great arrests. But unfortunately we have had one report of an attempted burglary along Broomfield Road on the 16/02/2018. Suspects had walked along the front drive and tried to gain entry to the property. In relation to motor vehicle crime. On the 22/02/2018, we have had one report of a theft of motor vehicle that was taken from the driveway along Freta Road. Also a report of a theft from motor vehicle on the 19/02/2018 along Rochester Drive, number plates were removed from the vehicle. Two reports have been received over the last week where wallets have been stolen from the victims and we have one victim of pick pocketing, below is a brief summary of them: 26/02/2018 – Wallet was stolen from victim whilst they were shopping in TKMaxx 24/02/2018 – Wallet stolen along the Broadway area; 22/02/2018 – Victim was pick pocketed whilst shopping in Pound Land. There was also a report of property that was stolen from outside McDonalds on the 21/02/2018. The team has been conducted some outstanding work whilst also proactively patrolling on a regular basis. We have noticed youths are starting to congregate outside the Bowling Alley and around Methuen Road & Oakland’s Road, the team is engaging with them to reduce ASB. We have been receiving reports of youths on push bikes riding dangerously on busy main roads. We have been told that they slow traffic down by riding in the middle of the streets doing wheelies and also being verbally abusive towards motorists. We have stopped youths on the ward along Iris Road to advise them to be cautious whilst on their bikes and to think about their safety as well as for other members of public. Parental letters have been sent to some Parents. Following residents’ concerns of youth disorder on the Broadway, Police took positive action in implementing dispersal zones in which a number of people were arrested and subsequently we have had positive results at Court. Schools have been fully engaged and are committing in working in partnership with us. We have received complaints of drug dealing taking place along Hawthorn Road and Methuen Road. These streets are regularly patrolled to help tackle this problem. The team is conducting extensive enquiries with regards to the theft of purse from the 97 year old female outside the Conservative Club". Colyers ward:- "We are pleased to say another low crime week for Colyers Ward this week with no reported burglaries and just one theft from motor vehicle. A car window was smashed and a Satnav and purse were stolen from a car in Badlow Close overnight on Monday 26th Feb sometime between 7.30pm and 10am the following morning. Please remember to take everything with you, leaving nothing on view, before leaving and locking your car. Colyers and North End SNT held a joint Crime Prevention event in the Shell garage on North End road on Saturday 24th February. The ward officers have been busy assisting with patrols for the knife point robberies and yesterday (Wednesday 28th) Colyers SNT assisted Belvedere team with a drugs warrant on their ward. Cannabis , cash and other items were seized". Crayford ward:- "Not too many crimes of note this week. A secured moped was stolen from the driveway of a property in Mayplace Avenue sometime between 20.00 on the 25/02/18 and 11.00 on 26/02/18. On 22/02/18 at approx. 22.00, police received a call about suspicious behaviour near a vehicle in Dale Road. On arrival the main group had left leaving one male standing near some bushes. Police were made aware that items had been placed in those bushes. The male was searched and arrested for having drugs and intending to supply and having a police baton. He was further arrested as the motorcycle he had was not road legal as it had no MOT or insurance. We have been dealing with anti-social behaviour near the Europa Gym and Town Hall Square and have now identified some of the youths concerned in this behaviour. We will now liaise with other agencies to deal with them appropriately". Lesnes Abbey ward:- "Burglary - On Monday 26/02/18 between the hours of 03 :10 pm and 06:55 pm a burglary occurred in Wyfold house, Wolvercote Road. Entry was made via the front door. Nothing was taken. Between Friday 23/02/18 and Saturday 24/02/18 a burglary occurred in Manorside Close, the UPVC outer door had been kicked open. Attempted burglary occurred in Glenview between Thursday 22/02/18 and Saturday 24/02/18.Damge to the woodwork and the padlock hasps. Attempted burglary in Brampton Road occurred on Saturday 24/02/18 between the hours of 01 :00 pm and 07 :00 pm, no entry was gained but the outer front porch door had been bent by suspect/s using an implement. Motor Vehicle Crimes - During the early hours of Friday 23/02/18 a motor vehicle parked in Manorside Close was broken into and music sound systems stolen. Between 00:12 am and 00 :30 on Saturday 24/02/18 a motor vehicle parked in Coralline Walk was damaged resulting in the number plate hanging off. A set of anti tamper screws were supplied to the victim for carrying out the repair. On Saturday 24/02/18 a motor vehicle was stolen from outside of a property in Burchabro Road. Good news on the stolen vehicle, it was later found and is now in the police car pound. The owner has been informed. Date for your diary - Have a say day. Any motorists using the BP Connect petrol station on Harrow Manor Way, SE2 9TA on Wednesday 07/03/18 between the hours of 11:00 am and 12:00 midday, pick up some Motor Vehicle Crime prevention information from the Lesnes Abbey team". North End ward:- "Unfortunately 4 vehicle crimes have occurred in the last week. 2 were overnight on Sunday / Monday near each other. Both were Theft from Motor Vehicle, one in Betsham Road, window smashed, items taken from within and the same scenario in Frobisher Road. Paintball guns were the items taken from the vehicle in Betsham Road and ongoing enquiries are being made. On Sunday afternoon number plates were stolen from a car in Betsham Road although the rear one snapped as it was being removed. A motorbike was taken in the early hours Friday 23rd Feb from Hazel Drive, the padlock was cut off the BMW bike which has yet to be recovered. There was also and attempted burglary at Cobham House at some point during the last week, no exact day or time as the victim wasn’t there for a few days but on his return he noticed damage to his door frame. Neighbours have been spoken to but nobody has seen or heard anything at this time. PC James Telfer was working with the Belvedere team on Saturday and spotted a male he knew was wanted for numerous offences, he was promptly arrested by PC Telfer, remanded in custody and given a 42 day sentence on Monday. Excellent work by James. On Saturday evening PC Mark Brookes-Smith and PCSO Mark Pigott had a crime prevention table at the Shell Garage on Northend Road. This was a joint effort carried out with our Colyers SNT colleagues. There was a lot of interest from the garage customers and Crime Prevention advice and leaflets were given out to over 50 people. If you would like any crime prevention information, please let us know and we can arrange to get you leaflets, property marking pens etc and even have a one to one advice session with you if you require one. We have a Community Contact session on Tuesday March 6th from 1pm at Slade Green Library in Chrome Road, please come along and say hi if you are free". Thamesmead East ward:- "One burglary to report this week which occurred on Monday 26th Feb during the early hours of the morning (Harrow Manor Way). The front door was forced open, and electrical items were stolen, including laptops, and mobile phones. During the early hours of Friday 23 Feb, two motor vehicles were broken into, a bag and a wallet were stolen, Southmere Drive and Seacourt Road. Please don’t leave any valuable items on show in your vehicles, even for a short amount of time. A motor vehicle was stolen between 0100 and 0800 hours, at Thamesbank Place. On Monday 26th Feb, the team were out conducting arrest enquiries in relation to suspects wanted who live on our ward. Despite being unsuccessful, word quickly must have got round, because no more than an hour later, the suspect attended his local Police station, and handed himself in. He was subsequently arrested and sent to Court the following morning. If at first you don’t succeed, etc etc. Our base at Limestone Walk, opposite The Taris shop will be open this Saturday 3rd March. Any issues, please feel free to come along and let us know. On the 8th March, the team will be at the Link, Bazalgette Way, SE2 9BS, between 1630 and 1730 hours, again please come and say hello to us".

The end video this week is a short film about Bexleyheath; it is well worth a watch. See what you think and feel free to leave a comment below; alternatively Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The Exchange.

After a somewhat quiet period, things seem to be getting under way with the new organisation that have taken over the old Carnegie Library site in Walnut Tree Road. The group, called The Exchange have a number of ambitious plans for Erith and the surrounding area. They recently made the following announcement:-“The Exchange invite proposals from practitioners with ideas to transform London’s longest pier into a piece of art for the period of the Totally Thames Festival 2017. An opportunity for artists, designers, architects, performers, curators, and creatives to submit proposals for London's newest and most unique public art space. We are inviting proposals for a site-specific work based on Erith Pier throughout a three-week period in September 2017 that will coincide with the Totally Thames Festival and the Lighthouse Project. This is a unique opportunity for practitioners to have a significant new work programmed during a world-renowned festival. The commissioned practitioner will be awarded a budget of £8,000 to fully realise their idea for the pier.  The budget is to include all artistic, operational, installation and logistical costs of the work. There will be a workshop for practitioners interested in applying for the inaugural Pier Commission at Bexleyheath Archives on Thursday 6th July 5pm to 7pm, where Bexley Local Studies and Archives Manager Simon McKeon will talk through the history of Erith including the pier, Erith's industrial and pleasure resort history using a variety of visual and documentary material from the archives.  The workshop is free to attend, and artists will have an opportunity to look through the archives close at hand, booking prior to the event is essential". You can apply for a free place at the event by clicking here. I will be meeting with the people behind The Exchange shortly, and I hope to work with them on some of their community oriented projects in the future. It is apparent that investment is coming to the area after a long period of the area being relatively underfunded and ignored.

I have noticed something rather strange recently; in several locations in the local area I have encountered large streams of analogue magnetic recording tape in the road and on the pavement. The tape blows around in the wind and makes a hell of a mess. When I investigated, I found that the tape originated from fly tipped VHS video cassettes that had been broken open by persons unknown, allowing the tape inside to escape. What mystified me further was that this happened in more than one location, seemingly at around the same time. I witnessed it in James Watt Way Erith, Bexley Road in Northumberland Heath and in Avenue Road in Bexleyheath. It would seem that someone is dumping large quantities of old video cassettes in the roads of the area. This is somewhat mystifying, especially as the cassettes I saw dumped in Avenue Road were of the rarer Betamax variety. I had thought that most video cassettes of both VHS and Betamax technologies had long since disappeared – as far as I am aware, even the charity shops stopped taking analogue video cassettes some years ago. I am surprised that there were any left to be dumped.  I doubt that the kids that had broken open the tape cassettes had any idea of the history of the two video formats, or indeed of the format war which raged for several years. Something that might quite surprise you is that the price of old Betamax video recorders is currently going through the roof; a couple of years ago you could not give one away if you tried. Suddenly they are turning up on eBay and the bidding competition is fierce. Prices of £250 and upwards have been noted. What is the reason for this? Well, it does not seem to be down to any love for the outdated video format (which whilst it failed in the domestic home market, it was the cornerstone of many TV news and outside broadcast units for many years). It would appear that people are coming across family videos recorded on Betamax cassettes and wish to digitise them. Most professional video transfer services can handle VHS and the common broadcast formats, but very few are capable of doing anything with a Betamax format cassette. People with old recordings of weddings and family events realise that if they wish to be able to see them again, they will need to locate a device capable of playing the tape format - hence the sudden upsurge of interest. The ironic thing is, it is pretty likely that the tapes will be unwatchable even when a suitable player is used. Both Betamax and VHS cassettes deteriorate over time, even when stored in ideal conditions. A thirty year old video tape will have demagnetised and printed through so much that it will almost certainly show on screen as a mess of flickering static with a few undersaturated, ghostly images of what remains of the original recording now.  I recently have read quite a lot about the format wars between VHS and Betamax back in the early 1980's. From all that I have read, it became apparent that Sony, the creators of the Beta format were pretty much to blame for the demise of what initially was a far technically superior video format than the relatively pedestrian VHS system. The main determining factor between Betamax and VHS was the cost of the recorders and length of recording time. Betamax was, in theory, a superior recording format over VHS due to resolution (250 lines vs. 240 lines), slightly superior sound, and a more stable image; Betamax recorders were also of higher quality construction. But these differences were negligible to consumers, and thus did not justify either the extra cost of a Betamax VCR (which was often significantly more expensive than a VHS equivalent) or Betamax's shorter recording time. JVC, which designed the VHS technology, licensed it to any manufacturer that was interested. The manufacturers then competed against each other for sales, resulting in lower prices to the consumer. Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax initially and so was not pressured to reduce prices. Only in the early 1980s did Sony decide to licence Betamax technology to other manufacturers, such as Toshiba and Sanyo. What Sony did not take into account was what consumers wanted. While Betamax was believed to be the superior format in the minds of the public and press (due to excellent marketing by Sony), consumers wanted an affordable video recorder (a VHS machine was often around a hundred pounds less than an equivalent Betamax one); Sony believed that having better quality recordings was the key to success, and that consumers would be willing to pay a higher retail price for this, whereas it soon became clear that consumer desire was focused more intently on longer recording time, lower retail price, and compatibility with other machines for cassette sharing (as VHS was becoming the format in the majority of homes). The real Betamax killer was that for the first few years, the maximum length of recording was limited to one hour on Betamax, whereas VHS could stretch to four hours with reduced image quality, critically long enough to record an entire American football game - the lucrative mass American market both systems were looking to crack. Sony had the attitude of "We know best" as to what the market wanted, and ignored requests for features that quickly became standard with their competitors. Consequently Betamax is now considered alongside the 8 - Track cartridge as a dodo technology. You can read about the history of the video format war by clicking here. If you are of the opinion that Betamax is far too mainstream, well known and commonplace, do yourself a favour by visiting the Philips V2000 web site here. You can also read more about other format wars by clicking here.

If there is one things that can symbolise the difference between Bexley Council and neighbouring Greenwich Council it is the way in which they look after their parks and open spaces. This can be exemplified if one takes a ride on the 99 bus along Woolwich Road. First you pass by the Upper Belvedere Recreation Ground, which earlier this week looked like a jungle – weeds were rife and it was apparent that the grass had not been mowed for at least several months. When one continues on to Bostall Heath, over the border in Greenwich. This is immaculately mowed and evidently very well looked after. I don’t think very much more needs to be said on the subject.

Word reaches me that the Bexley Growth consultation event held in the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre last Saturday was as predicted, little more than a “box ticking exercise”. The event was designed to let locals offer their opinions on the proposed growth strategy for the London Borough of Bexley over the next three decades. The consultation roadshow has been located in public areas around the borough over the last few weeks, and the appearance in Erith had been scheduled to be open from 12 until 4pm on Saturday June the 10th. My informant tells me that the stand was being taken down at 1.30pm, only ninety minutes after the event had started, and two and a half hours before it was due to end. I cannot say that I am very surprised by this – I had intended to visit the roadshow after my return from a shopping trip to Bexleyheath, but when I arrived back in Erith, of the consultation stall and staff there was no sign. It seems obvious to me and others that Bexley Council were making a charade of the whole public consultation – they are not interested in what local residents want; they already have their minds made up as to what we are going to get. Having said that, some of the idea put forward do seem like a very good idea – the proposal to extend the River Thames walkway to run all of the way from the Isle of Grain to Woolwich uninterrupted is an example of one improvement scheme that I for one would wholeheartedly support. The basic premise of the Bexley Growth Strategy is defined thus:- “A new neighbourhood will be created in Belvedere growing out from a potential new Crossrail station, accommodating more than 8,000 homes focussed on a public transport interchange and a new town centre that will include a luxury outlet shopping destination, with the area generating up to 3,500 new jobs. Erith will provide the opportunity to deliver an exciting and well-connected urban riverfront destination of at least 6,000 new homes, with the area supporting over 2,000 new jobs through a shift to new engineering and manufacturing activities associated with the Maker Movement. Situated next to one of London’s remaining marshlands along the River Thames, Slade Green will be transformed into a high quality, neighbourhood with a new local town centre set around a potential new Crossrail station and access to outstanding recreational spaces, delivering 8,000 new homes and 1,000 new jobs.   Thamesmead will provide more than 4,000 new homes and 5,000 new jobs, triggered by the Housing Zone and a new Crossrail station and supported by local transport improvements, a new local centre at Abbey Wood station and with better access to green and digital infrastructure. Crayford will provide the opportunity to consolidate and redefine the town centre, opening up the north of the area to more than 1,000 new high quality homes with increased access to a more naturalised River Cray. Employment will remain important to Crayford, with uses consolidated to the east, delivering 1,000 additional jobs. The borough’s strategic transport links (both road and rail) are generally east-west, based on connections with central London.  North-south movement is difficult as major roads and rail connections tend to form barriers to cross/orbital movement.  Transport investment in east London and north Kent has often left Bexley behind.  Bexley is one of just two London boroughs with no Tube, Overground or tram services at all.  Basing growth on the existing network alone is not going to deliver what Bexley needs.  Bexley’s transport picture comprises high reliance on the car, a lack of choice of good public transport, congestion, poor air quality and excessive travel times.  These factors mean Bexley has been a less attractive place to live”. All very laudable intentions; having said that, you may recall that two weeks ago I reported that I had heard a rumour that the Eastern part of the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, Erith was to be sold off to a property developer. I still have not had a confirmation or rebuttal of the rumour, but I have, whilst researching this piece on the Bexley Growth Strategy, come across what may well be a “smoking gun”. The report states:- “Parts of the Belvedere, Fraser Road, Manor Road and Crayford industrial areas will be released for other uses; however, the retained areas will be intensified and promoted as strategically important employment locations. Transport improvements, such as bus service enhancements as well as a possible Belvedere - Rainham river crossing (this has now been cast into severe doubt that this will happen), digital connectivity enhancements, including the use of dark fibre networks, and modernised business premises, such as the introduction of shared working spaces and environmental enhancements, will aid these areas.  In this way, the areas will become increasingly attractive for new industries including those displaced from elsewhere within the opportunity areas”. My interpretation of this is that several of the current industrial areas in the borough – including part of the Europa Industrial Estate will be sold off for housing, if not straight away, then within a few years. It seems to myself and others that Bexley Council is gambling on Crossrail being extended from Abbey Wood and onto Erith, Slade Green, Dartford and beyond to Ebbsfleet to connect with other rail services there, and to additionally create a transport link from central London into the forthcoming Paramount London theme park. No Government decision has yet been made in respect of an extension, although the Bexley Growth Strategy, which I featured last week seems to take it for granted. Many of the plans the council have published, such as a new town centre for Lower Belvedere, as well as additional new housing seem to take the Crossrail extension for granted. Personally I think the extension is more likely to happen than not, as a far higher percentage of the line would be above ground, and thus both easier and cheaper to build than the original Crossrail project. The only real engineering challenge would occur at the Higham and Strood Tunnel, which would need extensive widening. It seems to me that Bexley Council will have more than egg on their faces if the extension project does not get off the ground.

I was standing on the Kent bound platform at Greenwich station in the week, waiting for a train to take me back to Erith, when I had a bit of a reminisce; I can dimly recall the days of the old blue and yellow slam door trains that used to run on the Dartford via Greenwich line in the days before the Networker trains arrived. The lower of the two illustrative photos above is used with the kind permission of transport photographer Tom Burnham. Click on either image for a larger view. After a bit of Googling, I was able to discover that these old trains were called the 415 class. Regular reader and occasional contributor Justin Bailey, who is an authority on UK trains, having written a book on the subject in the past, has some recollections on these historic commuter trains:- "In the 1950s and 1960s British Rails’ Southern Region operated a wide range of EMUs (Electric Multiple Units) with a bewildering array of identifying designations. However, the readers of ‘The Maggot Sandwich’ will probably be most familiar with the type that worked the North Kent Lines for more than 40 years, the Class 415 4-EPB and the later 416 2-EPB. These trains plied the Woolwich, Bexleyheath and Sidcup lines for more than four decades carrying commuters into London Termini such as Victoria, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Blackfriars and Cannon Street. The first batch of the Class 415 were designed by the Southern Region and were functional more than fancy to say the least. Little more than flat faced carriages on wheels with an electric motor under the floors, they operated in sets of 4 coaches or 2 for the later Class 416. The EPB designation came from the type of braking they used, being Electro Pneumatically Braked. The Class 415 was introduced in 1951 but it wasn’t long before it became clear that more would be needed so a second batch was built. This time however it was designed by the British Rail design team and based on an existing BR Carriage type. The BR designed 415 was introduced in 1960 and at first glance looked the same as the SR designed units. However subtle differences existed at the front and sides which were even flatter and mundane than before! The internal layout of a mix of ‘open’ (2+3 rows of seats back to back through half a carriage length) and individual partitioned compartments (2 rows of seats seating 6 people opposite each other) evolved over time as well. The almost identical looking BR designed 2 carriage 416 was introduced in 1953 so trains could be made up to 10 coach lengths as platforms across suburban London and Kent were lengthened. A second batch of this type was also built but in contrast to how the 415 evolved this second batch was actually based on the earlier SR Design! By the late 70s it was clear that no new design was on the horizon for the Southern, so having to make do and reuse as the Southern so often did, it was decided to refurbish many of the 415s with the 416s following suit in the mid 80s. By now the units had gone through three different liveries and were into their fourth. Firstly BR green, then BR blue followed by BR blue and grey and lastly the colours of ‘Network Southeast’. By this time the individual compartments were being phased out after a series of attacks on women and even a murder in 1988. Compartment fitted stock was not allowed to run after 8.00pm. Then in the mid 1990s as the new Class 465/466 ‘Networkers’ were being introduced, the 415s and 416s were taken out of service for good having served the Kent lines of the Southern for 45 years. It was the end of an era not just in railway design but for commuting as well. They might have been cold and draughty in the winter from the iconic sounding slam doors and the ride might not have been as smooth, but with them went proper sprung seats, the guards van (and guard!) and windows that opened all the way!"

One thing that does concern me is that the ambitious plans to relaunch Erith Market seem to have to all purposes fallen by the wayside. Regular readers may recall that the market was restarted last year, but it lasted less than six weeks. The photo above was taken at the relaunch event of the market, and shows the then Conservative London Mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith with leader of Bexley Council Teresa O'Neill talking to a stall holder - interestingly that was the only time that particular stall came to the market. Click on the photo for a larger version. When the market was restarted in the Spring of last year, many readers who contacted me at the time were very keen for the newly relaunched market to succeed, but they felt that it was being “set up to fail”. The fact that the market was only being held on a Wednesday, and not also on Saturdays was raised as a major restriction on how successful it could be. One concerned reader wrote at the time:-“ I hear are giving Erith Market a trial go. When they know it will fail before they start. They only seem to be catering for the unemployed and the elderly. Because they are the only ones that can go to the market. The market should have been bigger and on Wednesdays and Saturdays like it used to be. Saturdays for the people that go to work all week”.  I think the sentiment is to be applauded – the market needs to be accessible to as many people as possible – not just those who are able to attend on what for many people is a working day. Opening on Saturdays would be a bonus for all parties in my opinion, and would also benefit the Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, as shoppers attracted to the market from Morrison’s would quite likely also visit the shopping centre. There was what initially appeared to be some good news on the horizon though; I understood that Bexley council had submitted a planning application to expand the size of the market up to thirty two stalls. This would return the market to the kind of size it was in the late 1970’s / early 1980’s when it was located on the Pier Road car park, and held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was always a very well attended event. Since this application was submitted, things have gone very quiet, and if my suspicions are correct, the plans for a relaunch may well have been quietly shelved. If any reader has information regarding this issue, please contact me in confidence by Emailing me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Bexley Borough Neighbourhood Watch Association have published the following warning of another phone scam that is currently aimed at vulnerable people in the local area:- “We have received many reports of telephone calls supposedly from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. HMRC NEVER telephone! The caller claims that you have unpaid taxes and that unless you speak to a case worker and clear the debt, you will face arrest and a law suit. The caller has an aggressive tone and is threatening. The call comes from 0203 322 7241 but can also be made from similar numbers. Please warn everyone you know, especially the elderly or vulnerable.” There have also been several reports of anti-social and threatening behaviour from masked youths riding bikes. Police in Barnehurst report that youths on off road bikes in Martens Grove Park  have been identified and issued with a section 59 warning, which means if he is seen to ride again in an antisocial manner then the bike will be seized and possibly destroyed. Other illegal biker, quite likely members of the Bike Life TV UK gang, who are illegally riding motor and quad bikes on Norman Road, Lower Belvedere near to the recycling centre. Groups are turning up in the early evenings and using the area as a racing ground. This is causing issues for the staff at the centre, who are being intimidated by the group. If anyone has any information about anyone they know who uses this area as a race track then please get in contact with the police.

Nationwide supermarket chain Morrison's are in hot water this week; they have just been subject to a heavy fine from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for spamming customers with unsolicited marketing Emails, after the customers had specifically asked to be unsubscribed. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said the company had broken the law when it deliberately sent more than 200,000 emails to people who had previously opted out of receiving such emails. The emails, sent between October 24 and November 25 2016, were titled "Your account details" and went out to Morrisons More loyalty cardholders that had opted out of Morrisons More card marketing. According to the ICO, the message told cardholders that they had opted out of such emails – then asked them to change their preferences to start receiving coupons and points. It also helpfully "provided directions on the steps to follow to opt back in to receive marketing". The email was sent out to 236,651 people, but only 130,671 emails were successfully received. In an unsurprising twist, one of the recipients was irritated that they received the email despite having unsubscribed from Morrisons' direct marketing – and reported the chain to the ICO. The ICO's investigation found that the email in question "would be in itself sent for the purposes of direct marketing, and so is subject to the same rules as other marketing emails". In deliberately sending the emails, the ICO said, Morrisons had deliberately contravened the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and issued it with the fine, to be paid by July 13th. In an interview with The Register website,  Deputy Information Commissioner Simon Entwistle said: "It is vital that the public can trust companies to respect their wishes when it comes to how their personal information is used for marketing. These customers had explicitly told Morrisons they didn't want marketing emails about their More card. Morrisons ignored their decision and for that we've taken action."

The end video this week is of a historic local structure that very few people are actually aware of. Howbury Moat in Slade Green - Ancient Monument - Grade II Listed Tithe Barn. Between Slade Green and Crayford Marshes is Howbury Moat, a moated site dating from around 900 AD that originally surrounded Howbury Manor House. Past Lords of the Manor included Bishop Odo of Bayeux, brother of William the Conqueror, who was given land for the part he played in the Battle of Hastings. This was formerly the manor of Howbury, recorded simply as Hov in Domesday Book, from the Old English hōh, a heel of land. Slade Green was first mentioned in the 16th century, but the name is probably of earlier origin. A ‘slade’ was “a little dell or valley; or a flat piece of low, moist ground” and it was certainly the latter meaning that applied here. The ruins and moat of the house called Howbury constitute a scheduled ancient monument, and a Jacobean tithe barn survives, but in deteri­orating condition. The structures are on private land and are not generally accessible to the public but can be seen from a nearby footpath. Give the video a watch and please feel free to leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Potion progress?

As many of you will know, I have been following the situation with the abandoned and increasingly derelict former White Hart / Potion Bar with interest for several years. Various plans and schemes have come and gone, but Maggot Sandwich reader Stephen alerted me to a brand new planning application that has been submitted to Bexley Council by a potential developer. You can read details of the application by clicking here. In essence building owner The Wellington Pub Company are applying to convert the upper floors of the pub into flats, and to restore the former Victorian green glazed salt tiles and acid etched glass frontage with a replica replacement as can be seen in the drawings above. What is rather more surprising is that they also propose constructing some brand new flats overlooking the River Thames in the garden of the former pub. Nowhere in the planning application can I find any mention of what will be happening to the downstairs bar area and kitchen in the former pub. I suppose that any change of use would be subject to an additional planning application separate from this one. The new flats in the pub garden may prove somewhat controversial, and I have to say that at this point I feel that I need far more information about the proposed low - rise block before I can form an informed opinion regarding it. I can see the logic - the developer is going to have to spend a substantial sum of money on restoring and converting the upper floors of the White Hart - and the replacement pub frontage is going to cost a King's ransom to install. The handful of flats upstairs in the main building are not going to generate enough cash to make just that work profitable. Only additional new accommodation in the large former pub garden would seem to guarantee a development scheme that would make enough profit to make it attractive to an investor. We really need more information; I hope that more detail comes to light soon. The Architect's proposed design for the apartment block on the pub garden site can be seen below - click on the picture for a larger view. 

London City Airport has been suffering from a problem that has become a global safety and security concern. Passenger planes taking off and landing at the East London airport are being attacked by idiots with high powered laser pointers, in an attempt to dazzle the pilots. A chap called DCI Mark Eley is in charge of the police unit dealing with the problem. He said in a recent BBC News interview "There's been a growing trend over the last few years and we are working hard to overcome it. We think it's down to the reduction in cost of laser pens and we now have a much better reporting ethos so we know when these strikes are occurring. It's often youths mainly doing it as a prank not realising just how dangerous it is to shine these lights at an aircraft. While it may seem like a bit of a joke at the time, people are being convicted of this offence and the bottom line is this is very dangerous." Back in 2011 the Civil Aviation Authority released an eye test to help pilots decide whether they needed to visit a specialist after such attacks. Green lasers pose the most serious risk because the human eye is so much more sensitive to green light. Typically the American authorities are far more robust when it comes to catching and prosecuting idiots who use laser pointers against aircraft. The FBI recently published figures showing that offenders can be fined up to $250,000 and face up to twenty years in prison for trying to illuminate aircraft and the FBI has offered a $10,000 bounty to anyone who lets them know when a dangerous idiot is on the loose with lasers. Commercial laser pointers are unlikely to permanently blind pilots, but they can - and do - cause temporary flash blindness in the cockpit which could prove fatally distracting during a tricky landing. Despite the warnings and the heavy penalties, it hasn't stopped a small number of people from carrying out the attacks. In fact the numbers are growing. As of October 16th the FAA reports there have been 5,352 cases of laser strikes on aircraft in flight. At that rate, it is only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens. The same thing applies in the UK as far as the potential risk of aircraft attack by laser pointer is concerned. 

My article on Betamax video recorders struck quite a chord with readers last week; I have been contacted by a number of people, and been the subject of an article on the radio station Laser Hot Hits regarding my story of how some models of Betamax video machines are now worth serious money second hand on places like EBay. Several readers have been checking out their basements and loft spaces to see if their old machines are still around and working. I have been asked what models are worth looking out for. I have been talking to a good friend who is a bit of an authority on old video recorders; he says that some models of Betamax can be worth a lot of money to a collector, but others are pretty much worthless - and it is not always the models that were expensive when new that are worth a lot now. Apparently the Sony C7 model (in the photo I used on the blog last week) is very desirable, as it was very well built, reliable, and spares like drive belts are still available nowadays. I may have one in my own loft, or it may be the lesser and not so desirable Sony C5 model - I should really go up and have a check. Below is a short and very informative video which further explains why the technically superior Betamax video format lost out in the market to the cheap and cheerful VHS system.

Earlier this week I was in a meeting with a couple of colleagues when I used the phrase “it goes up to eleven”. My two colleagues, who were in their mid-twenties looked at me blankly, and I then realised that they did not know the cultural reference, which mildly shocked me. I (wrongly) assumed that pretty much everyone would be familiar with it. The phrase was coined in a scene from the 1984 mockumentary/rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap by the character Nigel Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest. In the scene, Nigel gives the rockumentary's director, Marty DiBergi, played by Rob Reiner, a tour of his stage equipment. While Nigel is showing Marty his Marshall guitar amplifiers, he points out one in particular whose control knobs all have the highest setting of eleven, unlike standard amplifiers, whose volume settings are typically numbered from 0 to 10, believing that this numbering actually increases the highest volume of the amp ("It's one louder, isn't it"). When Marty asks why the ten setting is not simply set to be louder, Nigel hesitates before responding blankly again, "These go to eleven”. The phrase has entered the English language, and if you use the BBC iPlayer website, the media player volume control goes up to eleven in tribute to the scene from the classic comedy film.

I have whinged at length in the past about the folly that is self-service checkout tills in supermarkets, and how they actually take the customer longer to use than conventionally staffed supermarket checkouts. They are both unreliable compared with staffed tills, and very susceptible to fraud. I also wonder why customers get charged the same for their goods when using the self – service tills as for the ordinary tills, bearing in mind that they do all the work, I would have thought that the prices should be lower for good processed through the self-service tills, but of course this never turns out to be the case. On top of all this, recent research shows that both conventional tills and self-service tills are increasingly becoming exposed to malware. Point of Sale (POS) devices are very vulnerable to two particularly nasty pieces of malicious software. The Cherry Picker and AbaddonPOS malware, exposed in the last week, are the latest evolution in stealthy and capable point of sales credit and debit card plundering. Cherry Picker has been targeting retail businesses since 2011 and now sports new anti-analysis tricks, persistence mechanisms, and better card ripping functionality. the malware is expert at wiping evidence of itself after an attack has occurred, overwriting files multiple times and removing data exfiltration locations. The memory-scraping malware runs on Windows platforms including Windows 7 and the hard-to-kill XP, running remote administration services. It specifically targets retailers in the food industry running any point of sale software. Most of the current malware infections have so far been discovered in the USA and Canada, but it is only a matter of time before they find their way across the pond. More on Windows later - you can see I plan these things.

You may have recently read that before he ended his own life, the late comedian Robin Williams was diagnosed with a degenerative neurological condition call Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Depending on whom you speak to, it is either the second or the third most common form of dementia. Lewy bodies, named after the doctor who first identified them, are tiny deposits of protein in nerve cells. Researchers don't have a full understanding of why Lewy bodies appear in the brain, or exactly how they contribute to dementia. However, their presence is linked to low levels of important chemical messengers (mainly acetylcholine and dopamine) and to a loss of connections between nerve cells. Over time, there is progressive death of nerve cells and loss of brain tissue. Lewy bodies are the underlying cause of several progressive diseases affecting the brain and nervous system, notably DLB and Parkinson's disease. Together, these are sometimes called Lewy body disorders. The disease is still very often not caught or misdiagnosed – generally as either being Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. But Dementia with Lewy Bodies is a beast of its own, even if each patient presents its own version of symptoms – Problems with attention and alertness are very common. It is a feature of DLB that these problems vary widely over the course of the day, by the hour or even a few minutes. There may also be difficulties with judging distances and perceiving objects in three dimensions, and with planning and organising. Some also experience depression. Day-to-day memory is often affected in people with DLB, but typically less in the early stages than in early Alzheimer's Disease. Visual hallucinations (seeing things that are not there) occur in most people with DLB, and can be distressing. These are often of people or animals, and are experienced as detailed and convincing. Auditory hallucinations (hearing sounds that are not real, such as knocking or footsteps) can happen but are less common. Hallucinations and visual difficulties partly explain why many people with DLB have delusions (thinking things that are not true). Someone may believe they are being persecuted, that there are strangers living in the house, or that a spouse has been replaced by an identical imposter. Relatives and carers may find such delusions very distressing. This was the terrible condition that my late Dad suffered from for nearly ten years. One other symptom that he suffered from the the loss of distinction between being asleep and being awake. He would have a nightmare, wake up, but he nightmare would carry on - in his mind it was happening for real; this was extremely disturbing for him, and very upsetting for us. At present, there is no cure for DLB. However, with support it is possible to live well with DLB, and management of the condition aims to maximise the person's overall quality of life. Given the range of symptoms, input from a variety of professionals is needed at different times. When caring for someone with DLB, it is important to be as flexible as possible, bearing in mind that many of the symptoms will fluctuate. Treatment of DLB with drugs is often problematic: everyone responds differently, there is only limited evidence about what works, and there are few approved treatments. Also, medication given to improve mental abilities or hallucinations can make movement problems worse. Similarly, drugs for movement problems may have a negative effect on mental abilities or make hallucinations worse. It is likely to be a long time before any kind of preventive treatment, let alone a cure is found. 

A reader sent me the period photo above, which looks like it was taken in the late 1970's or thereabouts. It shows Station Parade - the row of shops which used to exist in Bexley Road, opposite Christ Church Erith. The shops were demolished to allow the construction of Bronze Age Way, the dual carriageway that leads to Lower Belvedere, Thamesmead and Woolwich. I dimly recall the parade - there was a newsagent, an off - licence (which had a reputation for serving under - age customers), an estate agent and a "greasy spoon" cafe, which was run by a rather dodgy bloke who was the uncle of someone I went to school with. My schoolmate would sometimes visit the cafe at lunchtime to get a free fry - up, but I seem to remember he had to go round collecting dirty plates and cups for his uncle afterwards. I never actually went in there myself. So much of old Erith has been destroyed over the years; this is the reason that so many residents, including myself are so keen on preserving the little that is left. 

A local community radio station has submitted an application to OFCOM for a regional commercial radio licence. Miskin Radio, which is based at North West Kent College in Dartford, is a local radio station that has been set up and launched by one of the College’s Media Lecturers, Andrew Sayers. Andrew has been working in radio since he was fourteen years old and is now focusing his passion into providing North West Kent with its own radio broadcast.  Miskin Radio has already made a firm impression since their internet debut in April 2012, with over four thousand listeners. They had a temporary community broadcasting licence back in 2012, in order to provide locally relevant coverage of the Olympic Games. Andrew described the station thus:- “This is a local community radio station for anyone who is interested in radio and the media industry. Our team includes a mixture of radio professionals, volunteers and students from North West Kent College. Our aim is to provide a radio service in the North West Kent area, for local people to get involved with and enjoy.” The OFCOM licence application normally takes around a year to be processed, so if successful, Miskin Radio could well be broadcasting to the local area by Christmas of next year. In the meantime you can listen to them online. You can visit their website here.

Microsoft Windows was thirty years old last week. On November 20, 1985, Microsoft unveiled its graphical operating system; (actually technically speaking it was not an operating system at all - from Windows 1.0 to Windows ME, Windows was actually a graphical interface shell that sat on top of DOS - which was the actual operating system - but I digress). Windows 1.0 offered a new way to navigate a PC, clicking a cursor on various boxes rather than scrolling through lines of text in order to navigate data and applications. While arguably less efficient than a command line, the graphical user interface (GUI) was more intuitive and easier for novice users to manage. Running Windows 1.0 required a PC running DOS 2.0 as well as two double-sided floppy disk drives, 256K of memory, and a new-fangled device known as a "graphics card." Windows worked with some DOS apps, while others would just run in full-screen mode. Windows 1.0 was not exactly a stirring success. PC users accustomed to the command-line interface of DOS weren't yet sold on a GUI, and only about 500,000 copies were sold in the first couple of years. It took until the early 90s for Windows to catch on, but when it did, the OS became synonymous with the PC and made Microsoft one of the most successful and powerful companies in the world for the next two decades. Windows has had its ups and downs - at times it has been an excellent operating system, with other iterations, it has been truly terrible; let's look at some of the bad ones first:- Windows Vista was the long-awaited successor to Windows XP – perhaps that's part of why it is considered such a huge disappointment. After years of speculation and hype, Vista was roundly panned by critics and loathed by consumers. Part of the problem was its hefty hardware requirements that, for many users, meant upgrading components or just buying an entirely new PC. Add to that performance issues and default security settings that would flood users with permission dialogues, and you get one of Microsoft's biggest flops. Windows ME, however, was an even bigger flop than Vista. The final DOS based, consumer-only version of Windows, its mere mention will draw cringes to this day. It was a buggy, sluggish mess of an operating system and is considered by many to be Microsoft's worst-ever Windows version. On top of being riddled with bugs, ME suffered from a rather unfortunate flaw in its system restore process that on some machines meant that when something did go seriously wrong, the OS could not be restored. On a happier note, there have been some excellent and very popular versions of Windows:- Windows 3.11 was credited as the first true "hit" version of Windows and the commercial success that the platform needed to be considered more than just an add-on for DOS. It also carved out a niche for itself in the embedded market that would last for more than two decades. Windows for Workgroups was phenomenally successful as a platform for consoles, point of sale terminals, and workstations. Well into the 2000s, Windows 3.11 could be found in embedded devices. Just a few weeks ago, it was found that Orly Airport in France used Windows 3.11 to power a critical weather prediction system, 23 years after its release and nearly 15 years after Microsoft pulled official support. Windows XP SP2 was the version of XP that Microsoft got right. Three years after XP hit, Microsoft pushed out the second service pack and finally addressed some of the myriad of security problems that plagued XP. Like Windows 3.11, XP SP2 has enjoyed a lifespan so long it has become troublesome. Despite Microsoft's best efforts to get people to upgrade their systems to newer versions, more than one in ten PCs still rely on XP. Windows 7 was another stellar release that came after a less-than-stellar predecessor. In this case, Windows 7 corrected a lot of the things that Vista got wrong, particularly security, performance, and hardware demands. It may also be in for a lengthy run as the Windows release of choice. With Windows 8 bombing and many viewing Windows 10 with skepticism, Microsoft could once again find itself having to continue to support Windows 7 longer than it would want to. Time will tell, as Windows no longer has the complete stranglehold on the computer world that it used to have.

Earlier in the week I received an Email which contained the following appeal to the public:- "I am PC Richard Bradford and I work for the Metropolitan Police Service here on the London Borough of Bexley. Bexley Police, in partnership with Bexley Council, are currently working on an initiative called 'The Commissioner's Christmas Tree Project'. Please see an extract below from the project information:- "A simple idea in the spirit of Christmas. A child in need can be helped by a simple gift from someone they have never met. That person gains no recognition other than knowing they have shown some care for a child that needs a little more love than most." The project began in 2012 with a single tree at New Scotland Yard. It expanded to five boroughs in 2013 and in 2014 the project was run for the first time pan-London, and supplied 6840 presents to looked after children. Every year we aim to increase this amount and maximise the engagement.There are approximately 65,000 children looked after by local authorities in England. At any on time the London Borough of Bexley has in excess of 1200 living in care within Bexley. All Metropolitan Police Boroughs will display a physical tree in their area, ours will be at Bexleyheath Police Station. Each tree will have tags on and the tags explain how to buy a present for a child in care. The gifts are handed in to police stations or other nominated Metropolitan police premises and then later distributed to the children. This project is now being directed at local businesses, churches, schools and residents asking for any kind donations of suitable gifts or store vouchers to pass on to the children in care in Bexley. The project opens on 10th November 2015 and will close on 08th December 2015 in order to get the gifts to the children in time for Christmas. To date ‘ASDA Bexleyheath’ have kindly offered to support us with their own donation point for a gift appeal and have kindly offered us a Christmas tree and support with publicity. ‘Premier Autocentres in Blackfen’ have kindly offered their support for this project by donating funds and are supporting us with the publicity. Prior to the launch date in November we will be liaising with local media asking for their support with publicity and the same on closing the project on 08th December 2015 when the gifts are given to the children and we will be thanking all those businesses for their support. So again I ask with the kindest intent would ‘YOU’ be able to support us with this project and consider making a donation at either www.met.police.uk/christmastree or www.justgiving.com/metxmastree Alternatively you can drop a present off at Bexleyheath Police station or speak to your dedicated ward officer for other arrangements".

As construction work between Abbey Wood and Plumstead continues, news reaches me that the UK’s largest rail project, Crossrail, will feature trains that are fully wheelchair-accessible, air-conditioned and wi-fi enabled. The trains, which are being built by Bombardier Transportation’s UK factory in Derby, will have space for 1,500 customers in nine walk-through carriages. Each will be more than 200 metres long. They will also re-generate electricity back into the network when braking, meaning they will use 30% less energy. The £14.8 billion cross-London project, which includes 26 miles of tunnelling through central London, has been hailed by Prime Minister David Cameron as “an engineering triumph”. The new trains will be in service from May 2017, though testing is scheduled to begin far sooner than that date. I am sure the many local transport enthusiasts will be out in force with their cameras when that day finally arrives.

The ending video this week is a historical gem - it shows life and work on the River Thames from back in 1959; it gives a rare colour glimpse into what was then a rapidly changing environment. One can see all of the old warehouses on the banks of the Thames, shortly before most were demolished to make way for offices - and the few that remained were converted into extremely desirable and expensive apartment buildings today. One can also see The Pool of London, and the old docks still at work. Only a decade or so later and most of this would be gone, as the larger container ships could not get upriver as far as London, and loading and unloading would move to the massively expanded container port at Tilbury.  In the film you can still see goods being unloaded by hand, something that would be completely unthinkable nowadays. It is a fascinating snapshot into a part of London that is no longer there. See what you think, and please either leave a comment below, or drop me a line to hugh.neal@gmail.com.