ALMOST 200 people have objected to late-night opening plans for York's Barbican Centre.

City of York Council is now considering special steps to counter concerns that it might be biased in favour of the proposals.

A special sub-committee may be set up to consider the proposals, comprising councillors who have had no involvement in the controversial council scheme to redevelop the site and privatise the auditorium.

The Barbican's prospective operators, Absolute Leisure, wants to be allowed to continue serving drinks until 2am and keep the centre open until 2.30am.

But almost 200 written objections have been received by the council.

One leading opponent, Maria Dodd, of Save Our Barbican campaign, who helped alert residents in the area to the proposals and encourage them to write letters to the council, said they had raised concerns about late night noise, public nuisance and disorder and alcohol-related crime.

Residents feared their sleep would be disturbed and public safety could be jeopardised.

"The Barbican Centre is in a residential area and is not the place for a late night drinks licence or a nightclub," she said.

Maria said she and others had visited homes in the Barbican Road, Heslington Road and Melbourne Terrace area and found strong opposition to the late licence in the vast majority, with many people already planning to write in protest.

Absolute Leisure applied to the council for a late licence last month, having previously mounted two separate failed attempts to get one from York Magistrates.

Both court hearings were abandoned, the first because legal notices had not been posted properly and the second because of uncertainty created by campaigners' application for a judicial review of planning permission for the site's redevelopment.

Solicitors acting on behalf of two objectors wrote to the council last month, claiming that notices advertising the proposals had failed to state how late the centre was intended to stay open, in breach of local authority guidelines, and calling for Absolute Leisure to go through the application process again.

But the council said today it was satisfied with the notices.

A spokeswoman for Absolute Leisure declined to comment today, although the company has in the past strongly denied that the centre would be a nightclub, or that its intended customer base would cause late night problems in the area.

Updated: 10:31 Wednesday, June 15, 2005