A ROW has broken out over online reviews of a tourist attraction after the world’s largest travel website admitted deleting visitor write-ups.

TripAdvisor revealed they have been deleting reviews of National Trust property Wakehurst Place, near Ardingly, which is currently embroiled in a bitter row with visitors over parking charges.

However the travel website said they only removed reviews which they believe “breach their guidelines” and would “never remove reviews simply at a property’s request”.

The reviews removed are believed to be complaining about the introduction of parking charges of up to £10 for National Trust members.

The attraction has been suffering falling visitor numbers, which some have attributed to the charges.

The fees were introduced to meet a £1.4 million funding deficit.

Nearly 1,900 people have signed a petition calling for the parking charges to be dropped.

A spokesman for TripAdvisor said: “We encourage owners and travellers alike to report reviews they believe may breach our guidelines, and those reports are treated with equal consideration.

“To be clear, regardless of whether it is positive or negative, if a reported review meets our guidelines it will remain published on the site.

“In this case, we removed a number of reviews for Wakehurst Place from our site because we determined they did not relate to a relevant first-hand experience.

“Our guidelines state that reviews must be written following a personal experience of a business or location, they cannot be based on second or third-hand commentary about a place from other people or within the media.

“We encourage visitors to Wakehurst Place to continue to share their genuine first-hand experiences on TripAdvisor, whether positive or negative.”

Earlier this year director Andrew Jackson stepped down after 25 years and was recently honoured with an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list.

A Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew spokesman said, “Our approach to TripAdvisor is to engage with visitors, explaining our policies and answering questions, as is visible from the Wakehurst TripAdvisor page.

“Over the past year a handful of Trip Advisor reviews have been flagged by RBG Kew’s digital team. In line with TripAdvisor’s own guidelines, we flag those reviews that make no reference to an individual’s experience of Wakehurst.

“Only TripAdvisor has the authority and independence to remove reviews that they deem are in breach of their own guidelines.”