LOCALS in a community near York are fighting plans for both their village pubs to be able to stay open until the early hours.

Dunnington village's two pubs, The Greyhound and the Cross Keys, have both submitted late opening applications to City of York Council under new licensing laws.

But their applications have attracted fierce protest letters from neighbouring villagers, who fear late-night opening hours would bring huge disruption to their quiet community.

Paul Gardner, landlord of The Greyhound, has applied to extend his opening hours to 12.30am from Monday to Thursday, and 2.30am from Friday to Sunday.

The pub currently closes at 11pm every night except Sunday, when it shuts its doors at 10.30pm.

A new licence would also allow him to stay open until 2am on bank holidays.

The Cross Keys has applied to stay open from 10am to 1.30am, on Monday to Saturday, and from 11am to 12.30am on Sundays. On bank holidays, it would open for an extra hour.

It currently shuts at 11pm, Monday to Saturday, and 10.30pm on Sundays and Good Friday.

Steve Ashby, who lives in York Street, was one of a group of nine residents who wrote in protest to licensing chiefs. He said later opening hours would cause a noise nuisance, caused both by late-night live music and drinkers driving home through the village in the small hours.

But both pubs have argued that the construction of their buildings would prevent noise escaping and disturbing neighbours.

Mr Gardner said: "We've never had an issue with noise. I'm not going to change the way I run my pub, so why should there be any noise in the future?

"People are worried about drunk people leaving - drunk people aren't going to get into their cars. I think people have got an issue with the Act itself - not with the public houses."

The Greyhound also has CCTV, which he said provided "effective management" of the premises.

Cross Keys licensee Eddie Tonks said he had no intention of opening his pub until 2am every night.

"It would just give us the option to pull pints a bit later," he said.

Late-night opening hours' applications are now flooding into council chiefs, with several notices advertised in the Evening Press every night.

Recent applications include York St John Students' Union bar, which wants to stay open until 2am on Fridays, and serve alcohol until 1am every night.

Three social clubs, the Severus Social Club, Acomb Working Men's Club, and St Clement's Working Men's Club have all applied to extend their opening hours, while Akash Tandoori Indian restaurant on North Street wants to sell alcohol until 1am every night.

Updated: 10:24 Tuesday, August 02, 2005