AN adventure park in South Woodham Ferrers has been criticised for its safeguarding policy after a couple were thrown out for visiting without children.

Staff at Marsh Farm Adventure Park, in Marsh Farm Road, asked the couple to leave after discovering they were not there with children.

A safeguarding policy at the zoo prevents adults from visiting the site without children.

It says: “As part of our safeguarding policy, adult only admissions are not allowed.

“Should an adult be meeting a group including children at a later time, we would kindly ask that on arrival you contact them by mobile and request that they meet you at the entrance for identification.

“Thank you for your support to ensure the safety of all our visitors.”

A spokesman for Marsh Farm apologised for stress caused to the couple and said staff would be re-trained. However, they defended the policy.

They said: “Since 2011 Marsh Farm has been run as a children’s adventure park and while the name has remained, we are no longer an open farm and all our marketing, activities and shows are clearly aimed at children of primary school age.

“In addition we also run a children’s day nursery on the site. We do our best advise visitors of our safeguarding policy through our website.

“The policy is designed to safeguard, is without prejudice and affords no judgement of adult only visitors.

“We are sorry that in this instance the implementation of the policy caused distress as this is never our intention. As a result we are re-training staff and we will continue to look at how we can improve communication of the policy to prevent this situation in the future.”