From Monday, anyone aged 70-plus can go to his or her parish hall to claim vouchers worth £100 to spend at any Checkers, Benests, Safeway or M & S store.
With more than 9,000 people aged 70 or more, the giveaway is worth about £1m.
Mr Kirch turned 70 in July and wanted to mark his ‘three scores years and ten’ in a different way.
‘At first I guessed that there would be about 3,000 of us and was very surprised to find out that instead there are more than three times that number – one in ten of the population,’ he said.
