Successive Westminster governments have failed the people of Yorkshire and refused to tackle the country's mounting dental crisis. Communities across the region are regularly seeing their local services squeezed to the point of closure. We refuse to see this as normal and demand an NHS dentist for all.

Over 1.7 million adults in Yorkshire and the North-East have no access to a dentist. In 2024, over 55% of Yorkshire adults and over 40% of children had no access to a dentist, whilst most surgeries are not even accepting applications. It is becoming increasingly impossible just to see a dentist, and dental deserts mean many communities in our region have no access to a dentist for miles around. This is fundamentally a result of the broken dental contract and an obvious lack of political will to fund a meaningful dental recovery.

Whilst we recognise that complete solutions can only be brought through at Westminster, we believe that local councils have real power to make change. Cambridgeshire county council has already committed itself to recognising and addressing the issue. There is no reason councils across our region cannot do the same. 

We want to see Yorkshire councils:

1. Recognise the rapidly worsening dental crisis across the UK 
2. Recognise government's fundamental responsibility for the dental crisis
3. Commission a report into the state of local dentistry
4. Fund the work of mobile dental vans, especially to serve areas of dental deserts
5. Call on the government for reform of the NHS dental contract

Help us pressure our elected representatives into taking action to address the urgent dental crisis by signing this petition!