Pubs and clubs in Craven will be able to decide their own opening times on Millennium Eve and Millennium Day, if the Council gets its way.

But Skipton's Hanover International Hotel has already decided it will be closing on December 31 this year, opting instead for a Pre-Millennium celebration beginning on Boxing Day.

The Home Office has asked every local authority to decide how relaxed they would like licensing hours to be at the turn of the century.

One option being considered is for a limited 4am blanket extension across the country.

But Craven District Council has decided it would prefer the second option of a complete relaxation of the hours, leaving closing times to the discretion of bar managers.

The Government is also proposing that such a relaxation should continue on subsequent New Year's Eves.

The community services committee's proposals will now go back to be included in a consultation paper, the findings of which will amend the 1964 Licensing Act.

Committee chairman Councillor Beth Graham said: "We have decided to go for general relaxation so that individual proprietors will be able to decide for themselves what time they close.

"I am sure they have sufficient common sense and resources to do their own thing. It seemed to us the most sensible way.

"It does seem rather strange, though, that the same policy isn't being applied to entertainment licences. We are expecting a deluge of applications for extensions, but it could have come under the same umbrella."

But news of any blanket licencing relaxation might fall on deaf ears, with many proprietors considering closing on Millennium Eve.

In fact, the Hanover International Hotel, in Skipton, has already decided to close on New Year's Eve, instead organising a huge "Pre-Millennium Bash" starting on Boxing Day and running up until December 31.

Spokesman Kathryn Gray said: "Most of the staff just don't want to work on such a special evening. In any case, the cost of employing staff to run functions would mean that costs to the guests would shoot up. So we have decided to close after our pre-Millennium celebrations and not re-open until January 4."

Most pubs in Skipton, including the Red Lion, The Albion and The Black Horse, all said they had not yet decided what their New Year's Eve policy will be. A spokesman at the Woolly Sheep, however, said they would be open just as every other New Year's Eve.

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