LIVEWIRE staff face losing out on extra pay for working out of hours and a reduction in their car allowances.

The company want to reduce its bills as it is left with a £300,000 bill from Warrington Borough Council for its services, looks to build the company’s savings to £2 million and be in a position to be able to pay off a £4 million loan for works to transform Great Sankey Leisure Centre.

Managing director Jan Souness said: “The council have been really generous - £300,000 given the cuts from central government it’s reasonable. It’s challenging but reasonable compared to other local authorities and the cuts they are having to make in those services they commission or run themselves.

“They have done what they said and given us two years and we knew this would happen.

“LiveWire’s business plan is to reduce the reliance of the management fee from the council. It was one of the reasons we were set up to do innovative things.

“We also have to make sure we pay back the loan on Great Sankey as well. We have to be in a position to invest in the company.

“We have a lot of part time staff some of them won’t be affected in the same way, but we are mindful for some people it is significant.

“We want people to look at this and come up with suggestion.”

LiveWire bosses say although the changes may hit people’s pay they are looking to restructure staff roles in the company to create new ways for staff to progress through the company and gain more pay.

And fees have already been increased by five per cent for users.

But the unions have questioned why staff’s terms and conditions are being hit to help fund the business.

Jason Horan, joint branch secretary of Unison said: “We are advised that the management fee has stayed the same so begs the question as to why the staff terms and conditions need to be touched. The proposals will impact mostly on frontline staff and hit the pockets of those who have not had a decent pay rise for at least 10 years.

“We will be consulting over the proposals and will be seeking the views of our members. If LiveWire proceed to implement these proposals then we will have to take the views of our members on how they wish to proceed to fight the cuts to their terms and conditions.”

LiveWire are now running a 90 day consultation with the decision to be made on October 23.