A HAMPSHIRE theme park has been refused permission to keep two multi-million-pound rides that were installed without planning permission.

Members of the New Forest National Park Authority (NPA) threw out an application submitted by Paulton’s Park, near Ower. Its bid to retain the Cobra and Edge rides had provoked in 33 letters of protest, one signed by 57 people.

It is not yet clear whether the theme park will have to tear down the rides.

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Objectors argued the scheme should be thrown out on the grounds that vehicles going in and out of the park, which attracts more than 400,000 visitors a year, are generating too much noise, congestion and pollution.

The district council also objected, claiming the screams of people using the white-knuckle rides were annoying the occupants of nearby Home Farm.

However, a report to today’s meeting of the NPA’s planning committee said the rides did not impinge on the New Forest and were appropriate to the site’s use as a leisure park.

Paulton’s Park bosses wrote to the NPA saying they had not applied for planning permission as they believed the site was covered by permitted development rights.