TWO Hampshire post boxes painted gold to honour the Olympic successes of Dani King and Ben Ainslie will remain gold forever.

Royal Mail has decided to keep the post boxes in Hamble's village square and Lymington High Street permanently gold to remind residents and visitors of the special local link to the London 2012 Games.

They were painted gold last summer after 22-year-old won the women's team pursuit cycling and Ben became the Britain's most successful Olympic sailor when he won the Finn class at Weymouth.

The post boxes have now received a fresh coat of paint and a plaque and marks the first time in Royal Mail's history that it has painted its iconic post boxes a different colour permanently to mark an historic achievement.