A NUMBER of members of staff at Superbowl UK in St Helens have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Staff and former employees of the venue, which opened in March last year at the retail and leisure park off Liverpool Road, took to social media over the weekend to voice dismay and anger at the news.

Bowling alleys can still not open under coronavirus restrictions and Superbowl UK said the ongoing impact means it has had to look at restructuring the business.

It adds this has led to some redundancies and the loss of jobs for people who were on temporary contracts.

In a statement issued today, a spokesman from Superbowl UK, said: "Following the latest directive from the Government on June 23 2020, our business was to remain closed to the public until further notice.

"The impact this ongoing pandemic has had on the business, meant that we have had to make some difficult decisions regarding the future of the business.

"We have had to look at re-structuring the business and regrettably, we have had to sacrifice some job losses.

"We appreciate this decision will have come as a shock, we have had to take urgent action following the announcement delaying our ability to reopen to the public, to safeguard the future of the business and as many jobs as possible.

"We informed all staff at the beginning of lockdown that we hoped it would be a temporary measure but if the situation escalates, it may lead to staff being laid off. The staff that have been terminated were on temporary contracts which had ended.

"We are not in the position to offer permanent employment and had no choice but to end that employment."

In their statement Superbowl UK, confirmed there had been redundancies in St Helens but said all staff members have not been laid off and that it does intend to reopen in the future.

The statement added: "We have also made five staff redundant and in doing so we have secured the future of 19 remaining workers and the assurance that the site will be able to reopen in the future.

"We would like to clarify that we haven’t laid off all members of staff of Superbowl UK St Helens.

"We have also made it clear to all staff that have left the business that if trade returns to normal, they will be the first people to contact regarding coming back to work."