THE Boot is on the other foot.

For years, pubs serving a village community have been closed, pulled down and sold to developers for housing.

Despite what residents wanted, a community facility was lost so that more people could live in a village that no longer had a focal point.

A pub is not just a place to drink in. It is a place to relax, where all sections of the community can meet on neutral grounds and discuss news, gossip and get to know each other.

And through that, a village can become a community.

Now, thankfully, people in authority are beginning to recognise the importance of the local.

When villagers fought to save The Boot in Bledlow Ridge as a pub, officers at Wycombe District Council took notice and stopped the pub from being turned into land for housing.

Then, officers worked hard at ensuring the pub could be extended for food and turned into a viable proposition.

But other pubs still lie derelict in Buckinghamshire. The Royal Oak, Great Kingshill, is still shut, despite valiant efforts by villagers to block development.

Councils must make sure pubs are seen as locals and not as sites ripe for development. So let's all drink to the lead given by Bledlow Ridge.