A group of London Councils are making a bold bid this week to extend the licence conversion deadline past 6 August, fearing thousands of licensees will miss the cut-off.

With premises applications still a rare sight at local authority licensing offices across England and Wales, and local government leaders and trade associations predict meltdown this summer.

Less than two months before the conversion deadline just two to three percent of applications from the countries' 155,000 licensees had been successfully processed by local authorities.

One of the largest licensing authorities, Westminster City Council, which has 3,600 licensees has had just 90 valid conversion or variation applications, and rejected 69.

A Westminster spokesperson said it now faced the prospect of processing one application every six minutes to make the August deadline. "Also, the number of forms we've had to return due to mistakes suggests something is very wrong with the system."

Blackpool Council has had less than 200 applications from pubs and bars in an area that has 2,000 licensees. Although it claims no licensing budget restrictions, a spokesman admitted it would still be extremely tight meeting the conversion deadline.

But Yates Group chief executive Mark Jones said: "It's local authorities not the industry that are struggling with this. If there's a problem they need to be honest and admit it."

To shift the August deadline, councils require an act of parliament, a move which industry bodies fear isn't the time or political will to achieve.

British Institute of Innkeeping chief executive John McNamara is suggesting November's second appointed day - the point at which the new licensing laws take effect -  be moved to spring 2006.

"Looking at current figures we believe as many as 60% of premises may not be licensed if we keep to the current timetable," said McNamara. "We want a controlled landing for the new system, not a crash."

The British Hospitality Association's Martin Couchman said a hurdle to moving the licensing regime start date was that licensing magistrates relinquish their duties on 31 December, creating licensing limbo if local authorities didn't assume responsibility before then.