Almost three-quarters of Oxford's pubs and bars have applied for late-night drinking licences.

A late rush of applications means that 117 of the city's 162 pubs want to stay open later, in the face of strong opposition from residents' groups across the city.

It has also emerged that Oxford University colleges have added to the workload of the city's licensing officers.

The new licensing law means that for the first time in their history, Oxford colleges are having to apply for licences, after being stripped of a special exemption that they have enjoyed over decades.

The colleges had previously been able to sell alcohol thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding agreed with Thames Valley Police.

The new figures confirm that breweries and pub companies are not seeking to limit late-night drinking to the city centre, with public houses in residential areas such as Osney, Marston and Risinghurst asking for late-night opening.

Objections from the public have so far resulted in Oxford City Council having to organise 46 Town Hall hearings to date in order to determine applications, with as many as five in a single day.

Forty members of Osney Mead Residents' Association attended the hearing into The Holly Bush pub's application to open until 2am at weekends, which the licensing panel reduced until midnight.

Other pubs such as the Half Moon, in St Clement's, applied to open until 3am. All 15 of the city's clubs have applied for extended licences, with some, like the Zodiac and Park End Club, wanting to open until 4am.

City and county councillor Alan Armitage, a member of the licensing panel, said that he felt "threatened and intimidated" after being phoned at home by a city centre landlord wanting to know why his pub had not been granted extended opening hours.

City council environment officer Tony Payne believed some pub companies were applying for long hours simply to give them flexibility, with managers not intending to stay open late all the time.

Elaine Beckett, spokesman for Greene King Pub Partners, said: "Under the new licensing law, pubs can apply for 24-hour opening, but the majority have not, preferring to apply for limited extended hours.

"Greene King has spoken to each of their 1,200 licensees and made individual applications on this basis. Each pub and its customers have different needs and this has been represented in the separate applications."

Meanwhile, the 33 Oxford colleges in the process of applying for licences were expecting little difficulty. The 2003 Licensing Act specifically removed the exemptions of Oxbridge colleges.

Elizabeth Crawford, chairman of Oxford University's domestic bursars' committee, said she believed most colleges would seek to sell alcohol until 11pm, with a limited number of late-night openings over the year.