POLICE and the district council thwarted plans for a day-long illegal rave at Alice Holt at the weekend after issuing stop notices which put a halt to the event only hours after it started.

But the Forestry Commission, which has been left to pick up the cost of clearing the site of rubbish, has warned that the revellers risked the danger of a massive blaze after starting a camp fire on the site.

Up to 400 people from around the country converged on the site of the rave at the Gravel Hill Road car park near the research station on Saturday night.

At around 3-30 am on the Sunday Hampshire Police received an anonymous complaint about the rave and officers from Whitehill, Alton and Petersfield were dispatched to deal with it. However, for their own safety, they attempted to contact organisers to stop the rave rather than go in heavy-handedly to clear the site.

Officers also immediately sealed off the roads around the rave so that no one else could join the revellers.

East Hampshire District CouncilÕs environment protection officer Don Browning was also called to the scene to work with police officers to put a stop to the event.

He told The Herald that the rave could be heard a couple of miles away from the site and was a particular problem to residents in the Bentley area who had to bear the brunt of the noise.

Soon after he arrived at the rave, the council received a handful of complaints from Bentley residents. He then visited their homes to take noise readings, allowing him to take action.

However, he explained, the large number of people at the rave made this incredibly difficult.

ÒI was going to serve a notice on them when we got mobbed by so many people that we had to pull back and call for more back-up,Ó Mr Browning explained.

Police officers were told that the rave was soon to stop, but it soon became evident that an all-day party, to go on until late Sunday night, was planned by the revellers and Mr Browning was able to serve a stop notice on organisers - backed up by extra police officers.

He said: ÒI served the notice at 7-18 am and they stopped 15 minutes later.Ó

As the organisers complied with the notice, the council officers were unable to seize the musical equipment but they hope to take action against the company which supplied it to prevent it being rented out to the organisers again.

The Forestry Commission, which owns the site is now counting the cost of the event where a fire was started which had the potential to cause massive amounts of damage.

Beat forester Chris Sorensen said: ÒThey started a camp fire which obviously in this dry and very warm weather was an extremely stupid thing to do. In this weather we donÕt want any fires anywhere near our woods. No real damage was caused as such but the potential for danger was obvious.Ó

Warning signs were removed by the illegal ravers and the Forestry Commission had to pick up the cost of clearing the litter left behind.

l Police officers arrested two revellers on unrelated matters.