A councillor and patients have spoken out after a dentist announced it would be closing one of its high street practices.

Customers at Drakes Dental Care based in Whalley Range have been told of plans to relocate to the New Bank Road branch.

The news has come as a blow for many customers who use the Whalley Range branch which is run by Smart Dental Care.

The company said it had the decision had been made as NHS funding had not kept up with the costs of running a modern dental service.

It also said patients could visit one of its other branches in Richmond Terrace in the town centre.

Customers were asked to fill in a ‘Clinic Relocation Survey’ which informed people of the decision to move across town off Preston New Road.

The move is due to take place in October.

Drakes Dental Care, which was established by a Blackburn based company, was acquired by Smart Dental Care, which has a head office in Manchester, in 2021.

Roe Lee Councillor Saj Ali said: “There is a lot of concern from local patients and the staff over the relocation.

“This dentist has been here for many decades under different brands.

“It is ideally located for the people who live in this vicinity. It is going be very difficult for people to travel across town.

“It is a request that a dentist should stay open here or if they wish to sell on they can give it to someone else to run.

“As councillor I am concerned for local residents but not in Roe Lee but also people in Bastwell and Little Harwood who use the services here.

“I do not think closing this dentist down should be an option especially with lack of facilities in this area.”

The group said patients will have a choice of locations to access NHS services from.

It will continue to operate the same capacity of NHS dentistry from its three remaining sites at Smiles Spa located at 128/130 Accrington Road, Blackburn, LA Southworth and Associates based at 21 Richmond Terrace, and Drakes Dental Care at 44 New Banks Road.

Suken Shah, managing director at Smart Dental Care, said the decision to relocate had not been taken lightly and they had done all they could to maintain services.

Mr Shah said: “Remuneration paid by the NHS has not kept up with the costs of running a modern dental service.

"Many dentists have left the NHS completely to go completely private or have left the UK to work in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

“Many experienced NHS dentists have retired after the Covid pandemic; as a result there is a real shortage of dentists who wish to offer NHS dentistry particularly in Blackburn.

“Drakes Dental Care is proposing to merge smaller practices together into larger practices in order to continue to preserve NHS services which would otherwise be uneconomic to operate and to continue to invest in NHS dentistry."

He added: “NHS dentistry as a whole is under severe pressure.”

One local resident who lives nearby said: “It is a much loved local dentists and a lot of people locally will be concerned that they have to travel across town now.”