Concerns over New Year's Eve opening hours

Licensees up and down the country could face the prospect of mistakenly opening illegally on New Year's Eve.

Licensees who did not apply for the 36-hour New Year extension to be carried over when the Licensing Act came in will be bound by normal hours when ushering in 2007, which falls on a Sunday.

Last year many licensees mistakenly opened their pubs illegally on New Year thinking the rights were automatically transferred with the new licensing regime.

Licensees now face a postcode lottery as to whether their local authority has warned them of the problem. Those affected will have to apply for temporary event notices (TENs) and, in some cases, will face a race against time to get them approved by local authorities.

Licensee Chris Smith at the Gate Inn in Marshside, Kent, was told by Canterbury City Council he had 10 working days to apply for a TEN or he would have to close at 11pm on New Year's Day.

However, fellow licensee Chris Maclean, of the Railway Hotel in Faversham, Kent, only discovered he was safe after contacting Swale Council direct.

Mr Maclean said: "There's a lot of confusion - 10 working days might not be enough, given what is classed as a working day by the council. We need some clarification."

Samantha Potts, licensing officer for Swale, said: "We are aware that some pubs may have slipped through the net and opened illegally. We have made the police aware of this."

Martin Rawlings, director of pub and leisure at the British Beer & Pub Association, slammed the government for not automatically carrying over the New Year extension with grandfather rights. He said: "It's daft. It's bureaucracy gone mad once again. The safest thing is for licensees to go along with it at this point but to raise this problem in the future."

A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media & Sport said: "What is written on your licence is when you can open. Nothing has changed since November 24, 2005. The guidance has always been available on our website."