WARNINGS about the declining working population age in the New Forest have been issued.

The Country Land and Business Association says the National Park is at risk of becoming a “permanent retirement and dormitory zone” rather than the living and working community it needs to be.

The warning follows an analysis of the 2011 Census.

CLA surveyor Tim Broomhead said: “The statistics regarding the other national parks within the UK show that retaining young families living and working in what are often remote rural communities is a real challenge.

“Retirement villages will not generate the economic activity essential to the maintenance and management of the countryside – future planning policies in national parks must recognise the need for affordable housing, for jobs and accessible services.

“The days when people were employed exclusively on the land and in the village bakeries and blacksmiths have long gone – but planning policies need to adapt and to become more flexible if we are to enable the communities living within the national parks to become genuinely sustainable.”