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The waterfront ACC Liverpool complex has offered its staff voluntary redundancy as the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the events sector continues.

The site, which houses the M&S Bank Arena and conference and exhibition centre, said it has been forced into various cost-saving measures, which included putting 100 staff on furlough at the outset of the crisis.

ACC Liverpool has been closed to major events since March, and a statement from the centre on Wednesday night said it was asking staff for volunteers to take redundancy.

A spokesperson for the ACC Liverpool Group said: "Due to the financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic to our business and to assist with its future stability, we have had to explore and implement a number of cost saving measures; these include utilising the government’s furlough scheme and opening up a number of voluntary cost saving initiatives for our staff including a corporate voluntary redundancy scheme."

Earlier this month, chief executive Bob Prattey told BusinessLive the Covid-19 pandemic had been the "most difficult challenge of his career". He also hinted that the centre may soon be forced into making redundancies if the furlough scheme was not extended.

Mr Prattey warned that while he was hopeful business events may restart in October, music fans should not expect a return to any kind of concert until next year - or a Covid vaccine has been made available, meaning a worrying future for the venue.

He said at the time: "The word ‘unprecedented’ is on everybody's lips all the time, but I've been in the business for upwards of 35 years, and this is the most challenging experience that I've had.

"It's really, really difficult because you're talking to lots of the organisers that are on the verge of going bankrupt, and some of the things that we're asking them to do are pushing them in that direction."