A HAMPSHIRE theme park has become the first to be rated as the best in the country for the second year running.

Paultons Park, near Romsey, has been named as the UK’s best-rated amusement park in TripAdvisor's 2017 Travellers’ Choice Awards .

It comes as the theme park, home to Peppa Pig World, has just opened a £170,000 Japanese garden to the public.

It built the space in the centre of the attraction to create quite, calm area for children and their families.

The latest project, which includes Japanese-themed features, plants and music, took 10 months to complete.

Dawn Imlach, gardens foreman and designer said: “I wanted to create something special for the park and in order to stay true to Japanese culture; the plans took a while to develop.

“We hope that the garden will be an area for guests and their families to take some time away from the busier parts of the park and to sit peacefully. As part of the build, an ambient sound system has been installed to play calming Japanese-style music throughout the gardens.”

The Japanese Garden is located within the pre-existing gardens, and sits across many different levels.

It includes Japanese native plants have been designed to highlight features installed including a gazebo, moon gates, and artefacts such as large hanging gong.

Freelance sculptor Justin Pook was commissioned to create themed seating, tables and rocks around the display.

A waterfall winds around the features with a watering cloud tree positioned at the centre of the top pond, as the focal point of the main garden.

The family-run business saw a record breaking year in 2016 aided by the launch of a Jurassic themed attraction, Lost Kingdom, a £9 million investment

The Travellers’ Choice Awards honour top travel spots worldwide based on the millions of valuable reviews and opinions from TripAdvisor travellers. Award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews for amusement parks and waterparks in the UK, gathered over a 12-month period.

TripAdvisor’s Paultons Park listing shows that 93% of guests who have visited the Park reviewed their trip as either ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’.