A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl is spearheading a campaign to save Thurrock libraries.

When Evie Redgrove heard her local library at Blackshots could be shut down, she took it upon herself to visit the Gazette, to express her disapproval, and wrote a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron asking if he could help.

The Gazette is now getting behind the campaign and calling for libraries across the borough to be saved after being inundated all week with messages from concerned residents.

A video of Chadwell St Mary Primary School pupil Evie reading her letter to the Prime Minister can be seen on the Gazette website – thurrockgazette.co.uk.

Evie, who reads a book every night and has won two reading medals, can’t afford to buy books – and neither can her family. She says her library must stay.

The family currently go to Blackshots Library every night on the way home from school.

The schoolgirl says she made her local librarian cry when she read out her letter. Evie said: “I would just be really, really sad if they closed it down.”

Evie’s mother, Elizabeth Redgrove, who is a teaching assistant at Evie’s school, said: “It would be really upsetting for us if the library closed because she wouldn’t be able to have all the books that she needs.

“She reads a book every night.

One book is £6. How can we afford that on our salaries? Lots of parents who use the library are struggling to make ends meet.”

A spokesman for Thurrock Council said: “The council would urge as many others as possible to follow Evie’s lead so the council’s eventual decision about the future of the whole library service takes in as many views as possible.”

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