PUBS in the UK are closing at the rate of almost 30 a week.

Others, like the Cherry Tree in Stambridge, which closed suddenly and without warning last month, face an uncertain future. Yet the prospect for surviving pubs is far from grim.

A well-located pub in the right location can be a buoyant business and a boon to its neighbourhood.

Certainly the omens look good for the Bread and Cheese, the latest pub to reopen its doors in south Essex.

The revamped Bread and Cheese is an example of a recent and hopefully growing trend, where pub customers buy up their local to save it from possible closure, and set out to breathe new life into it.

The Bread and Cheese certainly starts off on a good footing, since the new owners, two generations of the same family, are clearly bringing love and passion to the place.

Pubs which convey the warmth of the personal touch have an advantage not found so often in managed pubs, belonging to a corporate chain.

The Simmons family are keen to restore this quality to the Bread and Cheese, and everybody will wish them good luck with their venture.

There has been a pub called the Bread and Cheese on this site for at least 400 years.

It would be a huge loss to the local community and beyond if this landmark was to go the way of so many other pubs.

But the Simmons family have shown a way forward.