After years without an NHS dentist, the gap has finally been filled in one village.

This week, the West Kent Primary Care Trust announced Beaconsfield Dental Services was its preferred bidder to run services at Staplehurst.

The contract, worth £378,000 a year, is part of a £1.8million spend by the trust to boost the number of appointments available on the NHS in West Kent by 12 per cent.

Beaconsfield will operate out of the village’s medical centre. Two months ago the contract to run the doctors’ surgery was won by the West Malling Group Practice which is expected to take over soon.

A final date for the dental surgery to open has yet to be announced.

It will serve 6,000 villagers and is expected to handle 18,000 dental appointments a year.