NEW Year's Eve revellers will be able to party past midnight in Worcester thanks to the efforts of local licensees.

Venues across the city and surrounding district will be allowed to stay open until 1.30am, unlike many other places across the country, which will be forced to close at 10.30pm on Sunday, December 31.

The problem arose because New Year's Eve will fall on a Sunday and committees in the House of Lords and Commons must override normal closing hours for pubs to be allowed to stay open.

In March, the Lords' Delegated Powers and Deregulation Committee opposed overriding normal closing hours, saying it would be highly unlikely to support any more one-off relaxations of licensing rules until new laws for wholesale changes to opening hours were enacted.

This move blocked Government attempts to seek later nationwide opening hours for New Year's Eve.

As a result, towns and cities that did not make individual applications early will be cutting celebrations short at 10.30pm on December 31.

Pubs across the country will then have to make individual pleas to a magistrate for longer hours.

But chairman of the Worcester's Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA) and landlord of Toby's Tavern in Sansome Street, Mike Stevens, said the city's late licence was applied for last January.

"We saw the problem of Sunday closing time coming and, with that bit of forethought, we applied for a 12-month licence," he said.

"It was granted and people in the Worcester area will now be able to enjoy themselves well into the New Year."

Committee member and landlord of the Exchange and Shamus O' Donnells, Ray Brierley, said after the Millennium New Year flop - tainted by extortionate prices - he was sure this year's celebration would go with a bang.

"The late opening can only be a good thing and the night will hopefully mirror the success of 1998 and years past," he said.

Mr Brierley said the LVA was due to meet tomorrow to discuss arrangements for the night.