COMPLEX wrangles are once again plaguing a York bar, which still cannot open until the small hours despite winning over licensing bosses.

The Evil Eye Lounge in Stonegate sparked anger locally when it applied to open until 3am, four hours later than its current closing time.

Licensing chiefs allowed the bar and Internet caf to open until 1am from Sunday to Thursday, and until 3am on Friday and Saturday.

But despite its new licence, the four-floor bar will still not be able to open until those hours, because it does not have planning permission.

Licensing chiefs imposed lengthy conditions on the bar, including that it should abide by planning restrictions which limit its opening hours to 11pm six days a week.

Last week, we reported that the trendy establishment was facing problems after a complaint it was operating as a bar and not an Internet caf - for which it had been given planning permission.

That meant it was forced to apply for retrospective permission so it could operate as a bar, instead of only serving drinks to computer users.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: "Evil Eye would need to submit an application to ensure that its planning permission is in keeping with the terms of its licensing agreement.

"One of the problems is that, if the planning permission is not in place, council officers will have to consider taking enforcement action if it stays open late - regardless of the terms of the licensing agreement."

Landlord Ian Loftus said he hoped the council could review his opening hours while they considered his retrospective planning bid.

"The licensing people haven't got any complaints - but the planning have. I don't know why they can't work together, the licensing and the planning. It doesn't make sense," he said.

"I'm very frustrated. There's no support for local businesses . If I was a national (chain) I wouldn't have to go through this. I feel I've done everything the council told me to do."

But the council spokeswoman said: "It remains unclear which piece of legislation - both of which are new - takes precedence in such situations.

"We understand that similar situations are occurring elsewhere in the country and, until the matter can be decided in a court of law, there is no guidance on which piece of government legislation comes first."

Updated: 10:00 Monday, October 10, 2005