THOUSANDS of rowdy pubs and clubs have been granted permission to open until the early hours because licensing boards are powerless to object, The Times has learnt.

Local Authorities Co-ordinators of Regulatory Services (Lacors), the co-ordinating body for local councils on licensing, said that it had received complaints from around the country that licensing boards were being forced to rubber-stamp applications that they regarded as unsuitable.

Despite repeated claims by Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, that the Licensing Act gives new powers to local communities, the boards are powerless to reject complaints when “interested parties”, such as the police or environmental health officers, do not step in.

“We feel pretty shafted,” said an official for Lacors, which is advising councils on licensing. She said that licensing board members had resorted to cajoling residents into making objections.

“From the complaints we have been getting, I would estimate that thousands of applications have gone through against the will of the licensing body,” she said. “This is the main problem with the Act — that licensing authorities have no discretion.”

Over the weekend it emerged that Brian Calway, a Tory councillor in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, had resigned from the local licensing board saying that it was too easy for pubs to get longer hours. Mr Calway, a former policeman, said that the system to block applications was too complicated.

With three days until the new pub opening hours come into force, three of the largest pub companies, representing 10,000 licensed premises, told The Times that about 90 per cent of their pubs had been granted an extra six to eight hours a week. If this pattern were repeated across the country, more than 50,000 pubs would have permission to open until midnight from Thursday.

Senior police officers say that they do not believe claims by the pub industry that they will not automatically open their premises as late as their licence permits. Commander Chris Allison, the national licensing spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers, told The Times that his members expected bars and pubs to make full use of the new hours.

Concern is growing that residents are being excluded when a pub or club challenges a licensing decision in court. According to a document sent by Lacors to every local council in the country: “If the applicant requests the appeal and the Magistrates’ Court find in their favour, then there appears to be no recourse, apart from Judicial Review, for the original parties which made representations.” The Goverment has pledged to amend the Licensing Act if too many appeals favour pub and nightclub owners.

Ten days ago Westminster Council lost one of the first cases to come before a magistrate. The court found in favour of the Sophisticats strip club of Soho, which wanted to open for an extra hour until 6am.

Ms Jowell had originally said that she would review the laws next spring after seeing how the changes were bedding down, but Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart, chairman of the Local Government Association, told The Times that after two recent meetings with the Culture Secretary he had been told that laws would be immediately amended if there was proof that residents’ views were not being taken into account at hearings and appeals.

About 37,000, or 50 per cent, of late-licence applications have attracted objections, half of which come from residents and half from police and environmental health bodies. About 600 cases have so far failed to reach a compromise during mediation.

Theresa May, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “The Government told us that local people would have a stronger voice in opposing applications, but the reality is that the system is stacked against them.”

A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “Local residents have the power to demand a review of a licence extension at any point. So, if a pub gets a licence because no one objects and there is disorder of some sort, then the people who are affected can ask for a review.”

Tomorrow Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, will meet supermarket bosses and other retailers to hear how they plan to prevent the new licensing system from being abused by under-age drinkers. This comes after a report by Nottinghamshire Police that 10 out of the 16 supermarkets in Nottingham city centre had been trapped into selling drink to youths aged 15 and 16 in sting operations.

The Home Office said that the Home Secretary had asked the retailers to come back with “action plans on how they are going to tackle sales to children”.

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