HEALTH bosses have moved a step nearer approving the use of a new emergency dental suite -- but there were fears today that red tape could still mean the unit gathers dust for months.

A Department of Health spokesman said permission in principle had now been granted for the state-of-the-art facilities to be used to help people across East Lancashire.

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph yesterday revealed the £45,000 unit had been standing empty for months and plans had been sent to the government for approval last March.

Gordon Taylor, clinical director for community dental services for the Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, has long campaigned for the unit at Queens Park Hospital in Blackburn to be opened and told DoH staff on Friday that he intended to go to the Evening Telegraph about it if approval was not granted immediately.

Today Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "It's clearly no coincidence that as soon as Mr Taylor threatened to go to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, the Department of Health finally, after ten months of dithering, finds the time to give approval in principle."

And Nigel Robinson, of the independent watchdog body the Community Health Council, branded the delays disgraceful and said he wouldn't be satisfied until the unit was given the final go-ahead.

"We have had approval in principle for things before but then it can take months or even a year for the thing to finally get going," he said. We have written to the Department of Health about this before, but we will now be pursuing it again."

A DoH spokesman said the department was seeking further information before the detailed go-ahead was authorised and added: "It's now with the ELHA and a matter for negotiation between them and us."

The source said details of the scheme had changed since the original application in March, and the government needed to check it fitted in with new long-term plans for the NHS dental service.