DOZENS of bars, stores and restaurants in York and North and East Yorkshire have missed the deadline to apply for new alcohol licences.

Councils reported today that many premises had still failed to submit their applications by the cut-off point at midnight on Saturday.

They must now go through a much more complicated application procedure before the final November 24 deadline, when all businesses serving alcohol must have the new licence.

Failure to meet that deadline could leave licensed premises facing the prospect of being shut down.

In Ryedale, officers have processed about 90 per cent of premises, leaving about 25 businesses to apply for the new licence.

A spokeswoman for East Riding of Yorkshire Council said by noon on Friday, 2,239 out of 2,426 businesses had successfully applied for the licence. She said officers worked on Saturday to process more applications.

The figures for York were not available at the time of going to press, but licensing chief John Lacy previously warned that the his staff faced "meltdown" in dealing with late a rush of applications, unless businesses got their act together.

A spokesman for Selby District Council said only about six per cent of businesses had failed to apply for the new alcohol licence.

Tesco at Askham Bar in York is open without a break from 8am on Monday to 10pm on Saturday, and not as reported in the Evening Press last Wednesday.

Updated: 14:51 Monday, August 08, 2005