LUDLOW is a success story for getting old actively. Our older people in our town plough their experience and energies into volunteering. They fundraise for charities and run an amazing range of projects. Ludlow doesn’t feel like a retirement town because so much happens here.

But we cannot ignore a stark reality. Our town is getting older rapidly. Ten years ago, fewer than a quarter of us living in Ludlow were aged 65 years or older. It is above a quarter now. Roll forward to 2039 and two in five of Ludlow residents will be over what used to be called “the retirement age”. In some parts of the town, more than half the residents will be in their older years.

This town is getting grey fast and much faster than the rest of the country. That means we can’t duck the question of whether getting older is good for the long-term health of our town.

We are in danger of becoming less economically inactive. By 2039, we could become a retirement town with a high proportion of our jobs serving the retired community. These are often low paid and low skilled jobs.

An “older Ludlow” could become unattractive to companies that want to create new jobs. Too much of our town’s wealth will be reliant on the savings and investments of the retired or on tourist spending. Enterprise and entrepreneurship might be something that happens anywhere else but Ludlow.

My instinct is that we have to be a working town. We must create products and engineer useful things. We need to drive the green economic agenda, just as we have with biogas.

That means answering two critical questions over the next few years.

Are we glad to be grey?

If not, what can we do about it?