A Runcorn dental practice could be set to expand if plans to convert a nearby house into a new surgery are given the green light.

Halton Lodge Dental Surgery has submitted an application to Halton Borough Council to turn Shamrock Lodge on Grangeway into a new, larger practice as part of efforts to help deal with what it called 'shortfalls' in local NHS dental provision.

The application is for change of use to the building along with alterations to create a facility with three treatment rooms. The existing garage would also be flattened to provide parking for staff and patients.

Halton Lodge Dental Surgery has been operating nearby for the past 35 years but planning documents said it has been keen to expand ‘for some time’.

The application said: "Permission was recently secured to extend their existing premises to create an additional surgery, but on reflection - and even accounting for the consented development - any future expansion is constrained and the building layout less than ideal."

If given the go ahead, the practice would move to the larger new surgery and its existing building – which only has one treatment room – would be converted into a dwelling.

The application said the four-bedroomed Shamrock Lodge dates back to the 70s is in a ‘poor state of repair’ and that while believed to have been used as a doctor’s surgery in the past, it has in the more recent past been used as a single dwelling.

Whilst privately owned, Halton Lodge Dental Surgery is commissioned by NHS England Cheshire and Mersey Clinical Commissioning Group to provide NHS services.

The application added: "The development proposal would represent a significant investment in the building, improve its aesthetic appearance and secure its long-term future through the introduction of a viable use. It would also result in a significant and welcomed expansion of NHS commissioned dental provision in the locality.”

It added: “In response to the Governments 'Faster, Fairer and Simpler' plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry, the dental surgery has been keen to expand and through doing so address an evidenced local shortage of dental provision."