Age Friendly Communities

Ashford Borough Council has joined the UK Network of Age-friendly Communities – a growing movement of places committed to making their communities a better place to age in, working with the Centre for Ageing Better.

We are joining a group of places across the UK who are making changes to our physical and social environment to allow people to remain healthy and independent.

With Ashford becoming part of the UK Network map, we are also joining a global movement led by the World Health Organisation. The approach is an evidence-based, globally recognised framework for creating communities that are better places to grow old.

We have joined the network because we value our older residents and want to take the necessary steps to ensure more people can continue to enjoy life and get the support they need as they age.

We already have started our planning and will be talking further to residents, local businesses, charities and others to identify what’s next and to develop our action plan.

This will bring a range of partners together so everyone can understand their role and take action to make improvements and to listen to older people within the borough.

The UK Network of Age-friendly Communities covers over 30 million people across the UK, of which over 10 million are over 50.

Age Friendly Community Survey

As we strive to make the borough an age-friendly community, we would like residents aged 55 and above to complete our anonymous Age Friendly Community survey before 13 March 2026 to help us evaluate the current level of accessibility in the borough. Please answer as truthfully as possible because this will allow us to make the appropriate changes to reach our age-friendly target.

Think about your local area within the borough when answering these questions. Many questions ask about ‘access’- think about two things: whether something exists, and whether you can get to it.