RESIDENTS are backing yet another campaign in a bid to keep the threatened mobile library which is their only social meeting place.

Wallisdown on the border of Poole and Bournemouth has a weekly visit from the mobile library and this is the fourth time its future has been under threat.

Valerie Powell, 80, from Wallisdown, who has been involved in previous campaigns, will be fighting again to retain the vital service, which Borough of Poole aims to axe the service to save around £50,000 and replace with pop-up libraries.

“It’s not just a library, it’s our community centre – that we don’t have,” said Mrs Powell, who reads a book a week.

“If this is taken away we have nothing.”

There are three stops in the ward every Thursday, at the crossroads, Benbow Crescent and Sainsbury’s Alder Road and many elderly people use the mobile library, said Mrs Powell, including a 92-year-old lady with limited sight, who collects her talking books.

“It does her good to walk here, while she still can,” she added.

However it is not just retired people who use the much-valued service.

Ian Messom of Fraser Road, had taken along his children Alfie, six, and Bailey, eight, and niece Summer Ryan, almost 12.

“They would miss it if it wasn’t here,” he said. “There is no library around this way. We would have to walk all the way to Rossmore.”

Bailey, who had borrowed five books said: “I love reading. It’s good for you. It’s a skill for life.” Alfie, who had borrowed four books and Summer, seven, agreed.

Wallisdown residents suffer by being on the border of the two authorities, says Borough of Poole councillor Tony Trent, who is aiming to demonstrate that the ward is a special case.

The main crossroads stop is on a site originally given by Talbot Village Trust as a permanent library, he said.

“The social value of it is fantastic,” he said.

“Some of the people who come here don’t go anywhere else.

“This is their day out.”