May I urge all readers who use Sible Hedingham Library to protest the plan to close it.

I have used the library since primary school days in the 1950's.

It then consisted of a back room in the YMCA hut in Alexandra Road.

Later it moved to a wooden building in Swan Street that was originally a butchers shop.

About 1965 it moved to the modern purpose built building on the site of the old fire station where it has remained for over 50 years.

Now, although the village population has almost doubled in that time, it appear we no longer need, or can no longer afford our library.

The library building is situated between two blocks of flats on the main road.

It would surely not be too cynical to speculate that the main reason for its closure is to free up a potential development site?

Public libraries are as much part of our educational heritage as schools and colleges and should be valued accordingly.

There is little point in complaining that youngsters spend all their time in front of a television or computer screen and never pick up a book if we tolerate the closure of places where generations of children have been introduced to a lifelong love of books and reading.

DW Hilsden

Brook Terrace, Sible Hedingham