MORE than 1,000 Merseyside pubs, restaurants, and takeaways were last night warned they may have to shut temporarily this autumn.

About a third of the region's licensed premises, including 350 in Liverpool, missed Saturday's deadline to convert to a new licence under new 24-hour laws.

It is thought many businesses who decided not to change their hours may not have realised they needed to reapply for their licences, which are now being administered through local councils rather than the magistrates courts.

Overall, the prospect of round-the-clock drinking failed to inspire most in the region, with just a few businesses applying for 24-hour licences.

Among them were a handful of supermarkets in Liverpool including Asda in Smithdown Road and Sainsbury in Central Station.

In Wirral the only 24-hour applicant was Sainsbury in Upton, and Knowsley's only round the clock sales will be by the QVC shopping channel.

Most premises in the region applied for extensions of between an hour and five hours on their existing 11pm or 2pm closing times.

However, it is understood there may be some late change as overstretched councils, in particular Sefton, were last night still processing boxes of applications that arrived on Saturday.

In the meantime Liverpool council, which brought staff in to work throughout Saturday, has already rejected 50 conversion applications that arrived late yesterday

Merseyside Police last night welcomed the introduction of staggered closing times, which they say will ease pressure on emergency services.

Area and support co-ordinator, Superintendent John Hester, warned businesses to apply for a new licence as soon as possible.

He also warned all extended licences would be reviewed, and vowed to crack down on any that were misused.

Out of an estimated total of 4,027 licensed premises across the five Merseyside boroughs, around 2,940 (73%) have so far had their licensed converted.

The rest have either not applied or else not yet had their application processed.

Cllr Malcom Kelly, chairman of Liverpool's licensing committee, said Merseyside had responded sensibly to the opportunities presented by the new laws.

He said: "People do seem to have gone for two or three hour extensions rather than all night, and that is what I expected. I think one of the main reasons is that it simply doesn't make business sense for bars or restaurants to stay open 24 hours.

"It makes more sense for the supermarkets as it falls in with their regular trading operations."

Nationally, up to 50,000 businesses are understood to have missed the deadline. They now have until November 24 to apply for a completely new licence.

Supt Hester explained: "All extended licences will be subject to a review period once they come into operation, and we will tackle any irresponsible people or premises who do not abide by the law.

"I would encourage anyone who has not yet applied for their new licence to do so as soon as possible."

deborahjames@dailypost.co.uk