ALONG with its other claims to fame, is Ludlow becoming the foreign language centre of the West Midlands?

The recently installed Language-Ometer in the box office of the Assembly Rooms gives a tantalising clue.

All through August, visitors are being invited to mark up on the 'Ometer' the languages they speak.

It's a way of finding out more about the linguistic diversity of the arts venue's audiences and it could affect future programming, said Assembly Rooms director Paula Redway.

The Language-Ometer was put together by local youngster Laurie Whiteley.

The score so far shows two languages in the lead, with four Welsh speakers and four Punjabi speakers registering on the Ometer.

German, Catalan and French come next, with three speakers each.

There have also been two Spanish speakers and two who know Basque.

A solitary Malay, a lone Finn and a single Greek have also signed up.

There are not many local statistics about the languages people speak.

Punjabi is a front runner nationwide.

It ranks among the top three most common mother tongues for children in London in a 2000 survey.

South Shropshire District Council is ready to hand out its publications in Mandarin, Urdu, Punjabi and Welsh but requests in the past 15 months have been very limited.