Soft play centre bosses have defended the council-owned children’s attraction against claims it is “filthy” and “disgusting”.

Photos of the litter-strewn venue at Ashford’s Stour Centre were shared on social media by parents who raised concerns about its cleanliness after visiting over the weekend.

Photos showed rubbish scattered across the floor and tables left uncleared, while one visitor claimed the play area was “caked in dust” and bins were overflowing.

But Freedom Leisure – which runs the centre on behalf of Ashford Borough Council – says the issues at the weekend were caused largely by staff sickness, describing Saturday as the “exception to the rule”.

A spokesman said: “’We have seen that there have been some concerns over the weekend about our soft play area.

“We had an extremely busy weekend and due to some staff sickness, were running at lower than our normal staffing levels. These are not low enough to need to close the facility and we would like to reassure everyone that we would never open this area without enough staff.

“We would like to assure our customers that Saturday was an exception to the rule.

“We have ample regular and recycling bins around the centre, including in the soft play area, enabling our customers to quickly and easily clear their tables.”

However, many of the more than 150 comments responding to the original Facebook post suggest the problems are not isolated to a single day.

It was shared by Becky Bee, who took her six-year-old son to the centre with friends on Saturday afternoon.

“It was really dirty and horrendously busy,” she said.

“The table area was filthy, with food and rubbish left on the tables.

“Parents should be tidying after themselves, but multiple staff members just walked on past and ignored the mess.

“The play area was just as bad – and my friend took pictures of parts of the soft play area absolutely caked in dust.”

Parents responding say they have experienced similar issues on separate days.

Rebecca Ann Khoo wrote: “I was there Monday and it was mucky and gross.

“No one was cleaning tables etc and no serviettes to do it myself. I ended up going into the toilets to get some toilet roll to clean our table. It just seems really neglected there.”

Tracy Reeves added: “My daughter went on Friday and complained of exactly the same thing.

“Absolutely disgusting. Nobody came and cleaned or done anything.

“The bin was overflowing. They were there for two hours, nobody came and done anything.”

After one mum complained of the baby changing facilities being out of action on Saturday, Holly Elizabeth responded: “Explains why a man was changing his daughter on the cafe table then…but without a changing mat. Felt sorry for the people who would be sat there next without the table being cleaned!”

Amid the stream of complaints, Sarah Hales defended the centre, highlighting the difficulties staff face.

“Every time I’ve been (three times all recently, mixture of weekend and weekday) it has been busy, but not dirty or messy,” she wrote.

“It’s always going to be hard maintaining a place that’s overcrowded in the first place.. but that being said it’s not difficult for parents to put their own rubbish in the bin, or failing that take it with them as there’s bins outside.

“Sadly some people just don’t care.”

The soft play area only launched in the summer of 2021 when the Stour Centre – which also includes a gym and swimming pool – underwent a £7.5 million upgrade.

Last year bosses were forced to defend the pool after angry visitors shared pictures online of dirty tiles and half-eaten food on the floor.

Following this week’s complaints about the play centre, it says it may take action to reduce how busy the attraction can get at any one time.

“In regards to capacity numbers, we will continue to take feedback from our customers and if required, implement banded sessions, with gaps in between each session to make sure that people are only staying for their allocated time,” the spokesman said.

“We continue to see thousands of children enjoy our soft play facilities every month and hope to continue to serve the younger community with engaging and fun activities.

“Please do [contact] us if you have any further suggestions, and we want to thank you for continuing to support our community leisure centre.”