PUBS could find themselves without a licence to sell alcohol because of a change in regulations, officials warned last night.

Councils have received so few applications for new liquor licences that it is increasingly likely that many pubs and restaurants may have to serve tea or coffee instead.

Councils took over from magistrates as alcohol licensing authorities in February and only have until August 6 to have their existing licence approved under the new system.

Darlington Council has received only four applications for licensed premises, despite there being 450 in the town.

It has written to licensees urging them submit applications.

Middlesbrough Council expects 600 businesses will be affected unless they submit applications. Only one has been received. Gateshead Council has more than 1,600 licence applications to process by the deadline, but has only received 60.

Almost all of them have contained errors and have had to be returned to the applicant.

Gateshead's head of regulatory services, Paul Dowling, said the council needed to receive about 19 applications a day, but it is getting only five a week.

He said: "These applications can take to a considerable time to process, especially if a licence-holder is asking to extend their hours.

"We are receiving so few that there is likely to be an enormous backlog of applications by the summer.

"The whole process is taking far longer than anyone expected because so many applications have to be rejected because they are incomplete or filled out incorrectly -even those submitted by so-called experts on behalf of licensees."

Under the new Licensing Act, every licence holder has to apply to convert their existing licence, which is relatively quick and simple, or apply to vary the licences to allow them to open for extended hours.

Applications for extended hours are more complex because they have to be subject to public consultation for a minimum of 28 days after the application is received.

If there are no objections, the licence can be granted.

If there are objections from groups such as the police, fire brigade, local authority or the public, then the application has to be considered by a council committee within 20 days.

If they refuse an application, then the applicant could then appeal to the magistrates, but this would also take time to complete.