NEW licensing laws have left York council nearly a quarter of a million pounds out of pocket, a leading councillor has revealed.

Coun Andrew Waller said City of York Council did not receive enough money from fees to cover the cost of implementing new licensing hours and activities.

He said there was a shortfall of £246,000, which had to be taken out of other budgets.

"This money could have been used to increase recycling," he said.

"The money we have spent on the Licensing Act could have provided two new Terberg recycling vehicles to allow collections from terraced areas."

Coun Waller, executive member for Neighbourhood Services, said the Independent Licensing Fees Review Panel had found that nationally, the introduction of late-night drinking had cost £97 million more than expected, and local councils were picking up the bill with money coming from ordinary budgets.

"The panel said that of the £97 million, £43 million should be reimbursed by the Government," he said.

"Yet again the Government has forced local councils to fund its pet projects. We were promised the scheme would be self-funding but local tax payers have paid the price.

"I hope the Government will consider reimbursing councils for some of the missing funding."

He said that in the first three years of the new system, the licensing department cost £605,000 to run, against an income from fees of £442,000.

"On top of this, £83,000 additional costs were incurred by Environmental Health, Trading Standards, Health & Safety, Planning and Child Protection in assessing and commenting on aspects of licence applications, in the same three years.

"The council continues to face ongoing additional costs for the noise patrol team responding to a doubling of complaints from residents relating to licensed premises, and further child protection assessments.

"I am pleased that the independent panel has agreed with what local councils have been saying - the new Licensing Act has cost us a fortune.

"We were promised the changes would be financed by the fees, but instead we have had to take significant amounts out of other budgets to cover Labour's bar bill."