A NEW dental surgery offering NHS treatment for more than 2,000 patients is to open in West End after civic chiefs decided to make an exception to a rule.

West End Parish Council had objected to a planning application to change the use of a small bungalow at Grey Lady, Botley Road, to a dental surgery with 11 car parking spaces.

The village authority said it would be a commercial use in a residential area.

Members of Eastleigh council's Hedge End, West End and Botley Local Area Committee also heard that because the bungalow was in the gap between the built-up areas of Hedge End and West End, use as a surgery went against the local development plan.

Councillors unanimously backed the application after hearing that dentist Anshu Sood would be providing NHS care.

They were told the NHS practice would also serve private patients and the immediate staff list would be one dentist, one nurse and one receptionist, rising to three dentists, three nurses, one receptionist and one hygienist.

Committee members agreed that in a bid to preserve the NHS service at the surgery, a legal agreement should be signed guaranteeing NHS provision for five years.

West End councillor Steve Broomfield welcomed the news that the village would be getting a new dental surgery offering NHS treatment.

He appreciated that the parish council had concerns about traffic, but added: "We need dentists. It is a devil of a job to get an NHS

dentist in the area."

Councillor Broomfield said it would have been foolish to have turned down the offer, and he was delighted that the NHS dental service would be protected if the dentist moved on.

The development at West End comes after the Daily Echo revealed last month that only 40 dentists in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight were still taking on NHS patients. The number of practices in the county had slumped from 565 in 2002 to 431 in 2003.