Police are objecting to extended opening hours at bars and clubs on Millennium eve.

Many venues want their customers to be able to party until dawn to welcome in the year 2000.

Earlier this year, many Oxfordshire local authorities suggested they would not object to premises staying open all hours.

But Oxford police are challenging revellers' right to party and were due make their views known at the city council's licensing panel at the town hall tonight. A number of clubs, including the Zodiac in Cowley Road, the Park End Club in Park End Street and Po Na Na Souk Bar in Magdalen Street, want to stay open all night.

But Supt John Carr, of Oxford police, said in a letter to members of the licensing panel: "We believe that if licences are allowed to continue after 3am, the increase in numbers of people on the streets throughout the night, and associated problems, will place an additional strain on the available police resources."

There were no objections from police to applications from the Cowley Workers Social Club in Between Towns Road and Chicago Rock Cafe in Park End Street to stay open until 2am.

Story date: Monday 01 November

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.