A dental surgery space has yet to see its first patient or even dentist in a West Lothian village, six years after it opened.

And the former doctors’ surgery in the village has been badly vandalised with fires set in the building.

Both issues were highlighted by local councillors, with pleas to the NHS and local police to help improve facilities in the village centre in Blackburn.

Addressing a meeting of full West Lothian council in Livingston, Councillor Kirsteen Sullivan, the depute leader and a ward member for Blackburn, told fellow councillors that since the new partnership building opened in the village 2018: “ despite space set aside, a dental practice has never been secured at the centre, leaving local residents to travel outwith the village to Bathgate, Whitburn and beyond to access vital dental services.

Councillor Sullivan said that, “with a dedicated space in the heart of the community Blackburn residents should have access to a dentist within the village”.

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