An animal lover who fulfilled a childhood dream by opening his own zoo has been handed an eviction notice.

Former Gravesend Grammar School pupil Adam Hemsley, 23, got the go-ahead from council bosses to launch the Hemsley Conservation Centre in Fairseat last summer, but now faces relocating his animals.

Andrew Marney and Lisa Howard – who lease the site to Adam and run the neighbouring Fairseat Garden Centre – said they were left with no choice.

In a statement, they said they had met Tonbridge and Malling council in January and claimed they learned that tours of a new wolf experience had opened without a licence or approval from the council.

They were also concerned about hand washing facilities for visitors.

They claimed that shortly after the meeting, Tonbridge and Malling council inspected the centre and immediately closed the wolf experience.

They said: “Fairseat Garden Centre takes its responsibility to all our visitors, our other businesses and the local community very seriously and with the very recent hindsight of Godstone farm (scene of an e.coli outbreak) we felt that it was not possible to continue long term with Hemsley Conservation Centre on our site.”

However, a spokesman for the council said: “The wolf experience had opened without the council’s knowledge but Hemsley Conservation Centre had not breached their licence condition or breached health and safety requirements.

“Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council issued a four-year zoo licence to Hemsley Conservation Centre on August 19, 2015 and will continue to monitor the welfare of all the animals.”

Adam and his mum Julia, who helps out at the centre, said the wolves were moved to another field because the one they were in flooded.

Now all of the animals – including crocodiles, lemurs and porcupines – face an uncertain future.

Part of the agreement of the tenancy was that if the zoo ever moved, the area would have to be restored for use by the garden centre. Adam claims it could take up to a year to do that.

He said: “The landlords said it was a breakdown in our relationship, but there hasn’t been, and we haven’t done anything they haven’t asked for.

“We had no problem with this site and we still haven’t – we carried on paying the rent for this plot of land and have paid it regularly and on time.

“It took us six months to set it up, so it’s going to be a year to get it back to how it was,” he said.

“It is going to be a very big job to put it back to normal.”

Hemsley Conservation Centre remains open as normal for now, but keep up to date at hemsleyconservationcentre.co.uk.