THOUSANDS of drinkers could be affected after some 600 pubs, hotels, restaurants and clubs in the Bournemouth area failed to meet the August 6 licensing deadline, it is now feared.

Even establishments that simply want to serve coffee at 11pm may have been caught out by the new Licensing Act, warn solicitors Horsey Lightly Fynn (HLF).

HLF Bournemouth-based licensing specialist Lionel Fynn said: "It is a bureaucratic bungle of monstrous proportions.

"In February 2004 they all paid £30 to be guaranteed a three-year renewal of their licences so why should they now have to jump through hoops and pay at least £100 for the privilege of keeping what they have already paid for?

"The existing Act could easily have been amended as it has been throughout its life but instead the government had a misguided political agenda.

"It wanted to push through a regime change so that local authorities would henceforth administer the system - despite all objections, logic and previous experience.

"Nothing would divert the government from this path and the impenetrable screen of bureaucracy meant that only now are people waking up to what has happened."

Drinkers in Bournemouth could find their choice limited after November 24 after so many local premises failed to meet the August 6 deadline for applying to convert their existing licences, he added.

Under the Act those premises must now go through the even more complex process of applying for an entirely new licence if they plan to serve alcohol after the November deadline.

As they have now lost their "grandfather rights" they have to start from scratch, which means anyone, including the police, can object.

Many local businesses managed to meet the August 6 deadline. HLF staff "pulled out all the stops" to get their clients' applications completed in time.

On the night of August 6, staff were dispatched to Bournemouth, Wareham, Lyndhurst, Salisbury and Dorchester to deliver the applications by hand before the midnight deadline.

First published: August 15