Sussex Police Authority – the body that holds the police purse strings - is urging ministers to reconsider the rules for Temporary Event Notices (TEN) to give officers more time to consider the impacts of individual events on policing.

Under the Licensing Act 2003, organisers of small-scale, one-off events must submit their TEN applications to the licensing authority at least ten days before it is due to take place. The police must also be sent a copy at the same time.

Police staff and officers are then given 48 hours to object for crime and disorder reasons, but this could be at busy weekends when staff are not normally working and licensing officers are likely to be tied up on operational duties.

Officers policing areas across Sussex are increasingly finding TENs are being served at 5pm on Fridays, meaning the deadline for objections is 5pm the following Sunday.

And they are also being dropped off at rural police stations in the knowledge the deadline will have passed before the notice can be sent to the right office.

Now the authority is calling for five weekdays to give police enough time to fully consider the policing implications of each event and, where necessary, object.

Chairman Lionel Barnard said: "This issue poses a threat to public order if the police are not given sufficient opportunity to assess the risk of public safety of an event requiring a licence to sell alcohol.

"A simple option to rectify the situation would be to seek an amendment to the Licensing Act to give police five clear working days to judge whether an objection should be made."

The authority is also looking to Sussex MPs, the Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Officers to back its call.