Bradford's council tax payers will have to foot the cost of enforcing the Government's new 24-hour drinking laws.

Local authorities have taken over responsibility for licensing sales of alcohol, and in Bradford alone officials have been handling hundreds extra of applications from pubs, clubs, bars and supermarkets.

The Local Government Association yesterday warned the licensing changes would cost local authorities up to £60 million over the next two years.

Councillor Kris Hopkins, Bradford Council's executive member for corporate matters, said the authority had been given extra duties but no more cash, so the extra would have to come from the Council tax.

He said it was too early to say what the price would be, but said: "Another piece of bureaucracy has been placed on local government which means local tax council payers are picking up the bill.

"There is going to be an increase in expenditure. We have got to see a full year's cycle before we know what the knock-on effect is to be, but there will be a further burden placed on the tax payer."

Bradford Council's small team of licensing officers have been swamped with applications for longer licensing hours this year.

More than 1,300 premises applied for permission to convert their old licences to the new ones needed from November, and most used the opportunity to extend last orders to midnight.

Up to a dozen applications are being examined at Council hearings each week, and around 500 more are expected over the next few weeks.

In February, Bradford Council handed an extra £50,000 to its licensing officers to help pay for overtime pay and extra administration charges.

But Coun Hopkins said: "We have still got to see how the costs role out, we put some money into the budget last year and we have still got to see a full cycle go through."

However Labour group leader Councillor Ian Greenwood said council tax-payers should not be too concerned about the extra expense of licensing. He said: "The amount of money concerned, in an organisation which spends more than £500 million a year, is relatively small.

"The controlling group is just whinging as they always do. It is our view that licensing via the local authority is likely to be more responsive to the public concern and so we welcome it."