TOO many businesses in West Somerset appear to believe they are above the law and fail to realise that they could be forced to cease trading. The warning was issued - yet again - as the Government set a deadline of November 24 for the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003. But West Somerset District Council needs to receive completed application forms within the next five weeks so that they can be processed. And anyone who has not applied for a new licence in time will not be able to trade. The district council has still received only a relatively small number of the 1,200 or so applications which the new Act is expected to generate. This is despite the council issuing several warnings publicly about the risks to local businesses of not applying as soon as possible. Among other things, the council has written twice to all businesses likely to be affected, staged a series of one-to-one workshops, issued reminders through the press, television, on its website and business magazine enterprise.inter@ctive and raised it at licensing committee meetings open to the public. Cllr Parkes said correctly completed applications had to be with the council no later than August 6 if licence holders wanted to retain their existing conditions, known as 'grandfather rights'. But he said applications should be in as soon as possible to allow them to be processed in good time. Anyone who has not done this by November 24 would find themselves unable to trade for at least a short time. "They really do need to wake up to this legislation and get themselves sorted out immediately. "There is no way a small council like ours is going to be able to handle hundreds of last-minute applications. We simply do not have the large-scale resources available to do so," said Cllr Parkes. He said everyone in business should check how and if the Act affected them: "It is far better to be safe than sorry. "The Act covers much more than just pubs and clubs, which people traditionally think of when it comes to licensing laws. "It also takes in the provision of hot food between the hours of 11 pm and 5am, and the provision of entertainment, such as films, plays, dancing and discos, all of which can mean small cafés, restaurants, take away food shops, garages, fish and chip shops, cinemas, theatres and many other premises may be affected. "A lot of these people may not have needed a licence before, and some may currently have a magistrates licence and mistakenly think it will still be valid." Application forms and information can be downloaded from the council's website at http://www.westsomersetonline.co.uk">www.westsomersetonline.co.uk or email [email protected]">[email protected] or phone 01643 703704.