NOT a single York pub will apply to serve alcohol round-the-clock, despite the relaxation of the licensing laws, a Government Minister has predicted.

Culture Minister Richard Caborn told the Evening Press that surveys of thousands of pubs and bars revealed that landlords were planning to turn down the opportunity of keeping their doors open 24 hours a day.

But many WILL apply to serve beer, wine and spirits until 1am, 2am and 3am, using new licences which can be applied for from today.

This is likely to worry critics, including health bosses, MPs and police chiefs, who fear it will spark a huge surge in binge-drinking and alcohol-fuelled violence.

But Mr Caborn said staggering the times pubs, bars and nightclubs closed would stop thousand of drunken revellers spilling on to the streets at the same time.

New proposals - including closing rogue pubs, forcing rowdy bars to pay for police, NHS and council costs, and on-the-spot fines for drunks - would help tackle binge-drinking. He said: "I think people will look back in a few years and say: 'What was all the fuss about?' We believe that binge drinking is a product of the licensing laws as they are today."

Now every pub, bar and club in York has six months to apply to the city council for a new drinks licence. Licensees will state their preferred opening hours.

Local licensees have previously told the Evening Press that they were still in the dark about how the new laws would affect their businesses, but predicted round-the-clock drinking was not an option.

Jack Merry, who runs the Ackhorne and The Tap & Spile, said 24-hour drinking was not realistic for York.

Ange Golliger, manager of Kennedy's Caf-Bar in Little Stonegate, which is one of a handful of venues in York currently enjoying extended drinking hours, said she did not think anyone would open 24 hours a day.

Carole Patrick, of the Safer York Partnership, also cast doubt on the feasibility of 24-hour drinking.

In Ryedale, licensees recently agreed to opt for a 1am closing time.

Landlords decided to apply the closing time across the board at a meeting of the Malton and Norton Licensed Victuallers' Association held last week.

The Licensing Act will see six current licences - for sale of alcohol, late-night drinking, late-night cafes plus public entertainment licences for pubs, theatre or cinema - streamlined into just one.

Pubs and bars will be forced to reapply every year.

Updated: 10:21 Monday, February 07, 2005