NEW licensing laws could mean Andover's bigger town centre pubs facing an initial one-off bill this November of nearly £2,000.

But it will only apply to pubs which exclusively or primarily sell alcohol and fall under property bands D or E. Michael White, licensing manager at Test Valley Borough Council, said the situation wasn't clear at the moment.

Other pubs will have to pay between £100 to £635 depending on the value of the premises. Initial application fees as well as annual charges will be made to Test Valley Borough Council, rather than the current £30 fee paid to magistrates every three years.

Annual charges, which take effect from November 2006, will range from £70 to £350 . But larger, town centre pubs only or primarily selling alcohol face annual bills of up to £1,050.

The costs have been increased to cover the council's new administration fees. Mr White said: "Our new responsibility will be issuing licences to any premises that sell alcohol. "The increases in fees will cover our costs. If not, that deficit will have to be made up by council tax."

A spokesman for J D Wetherspoon, which runs Andover's John Russell Fox pub, said the company objected to paying extra fees if the cash was going towards extra policing - as was recently suggested by the Govern-ment - because their pubs were very well run.

Referring to 24-hour pub opening, (another proposal under the Licensing Act 2003) he said pubs would be open one or two extra hours a day at the most and that would be after consultation with local people.

Peter Cockcroft, licensee of the Southampton Arms, said: "I'd be very surprised if any pub in Andover will be open for 24 hours."

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