IT is hard to imagine the horror of having a grandchild removed from your home and put up for adoption against your will.

The Echo has highlighted the case of grandparents who say they have been deemed too old to care for their beloved three-year-old grandaughter.

Southend Council denies age is an issue in the case, but whatever the truth of that, it is clear the grandparents have been treated woefully.

Within six months of their daughter becoming ill with depression and being hospitalised, they are facing the prospect of never seeing their grandaughter again.

They have loved her and nurtured her from the time she was born, but could soon never see her again.

Sadly they did not have the financial resources to employ legal representatives to fight their corner in court.

Consequently, the council’s legal team has been able to win their case to remove the child with barely a word said in the grandparents defence.

They are now set for a David and Goliath battle to try and win her back.

No one is denying social workers have a tough job to do and that they seem damned if the do and damned if they don’t, but surely anyone can see that a child who loves and knows her grandparents and who has been safely looked after by them in the past are far better placed to care for her than total strangers.

This little girl, who is getting no say in whether she ever sees her grandparents again, surely belongs with the kith and kin who love her dearly.

Let's hope a more suitable situation is found for this little girl very soon.