Shocking pictures have emerged showing mountains of rubbish littering a beauty spot after yobs enjoyed a booze-fuelled barbecue over the Bank Holiday weekend.
Alisha Lawry, 21, was enjoying the Bank Holiday heatwave on Sunday when she and her friends came across the large patch of grass littered with rubbish.
The group were horrified to discover litter louts had even thrown some of their waste into the water near Cadover Bridge, in Dartmoor.
The friends could not help but attempt to clear up the mess - and spent over an hour picking up the rubbish with their bare hands, filling eight carrier bags with it.
Alisha, from Plymouth, said: ‘They should be ashamed of themselves, it was disgusting.
‘Picking up their child’s dirty nappies with our bare hands. It was horrible.’
She added there were no bins in the area, near Cadover Bridge in Dartmoor, but that the group of about ten to 15 people should have taken their rubbish home with them.
Alisha said: ‘We were at Cadover Bridge, about a two-minute walk from the actual bridge.
‘At 1.30pm my friend Josh walked over to the group and asked to borrow their lighter fluid, as we forgot ours.
‘He said the man was of stocky build, with tribal tattoos and short greyish hair – and that he seemed nice enough.
‘They left at about 7pm. We could see them from across where we were sat, and as we were packing up we could just see rubbish everywhere.
’Nappies, plastic plates, food - even unopened packs of food - beer cans and bottles scattered all over the place. They even chucked their rubbish into the water.
’My friends and I couldn’t leave the place like that, so we walked over and cleared up as much of it as we possibly could,’ Alisha said.
‘We took it all home with us and used what we could to bag it up.’
Images of the scene have been shared by Alisha on social media – and have been met with widespread anger from people in the area.
One person commented: ‘Makes my blood boil whenever I see this. Disgraceful and totally disrespectful action from people.’
And another added: ‘I abhor this kind of behaviour. No consideration for our country side. They are either lazy or just ignorant, maybe both.’
But a family who were out enjoying a barbeque at Cadover Bridge yesterday have denied they were responsible - as Alisha’s description of the man matched a member of this family.
And she says seeing Alisha’s photos of the state in which the site was left made her feel ‘physically sick’.
Kaiya, who was at the site with her husband, their seven-year-old son, and her parents, said: ‘I just feel really bad for my partner. Someone has described him.
’We were there yesterday, but we did not leave that mess. We left at 4pm and took everything with us.
’The person did come to borrow the lighter fluid from us, that’s correct, but we did not leave the mess.’
Kaiya added: ‘It made me feel physically sick to see the state it was found in. I showed the pictures to my son and he said: ’What kind of people would do that?’.
’It’s so disgusting. We managed to clear up our rubbish - if you can bring it all, you can take it away with you.’
Kaiya described ’a group of gypsies’ arriving just as she and her family were leaving on Sunday, taking their spot by the river.
She added that the men were in their 30s and 40s and that the women were a variety of ages, and had prams with them.
As regular visitors to Cadover Bridge, Kaiya said that her and her husband’s golden rule for camping on Dartmoor is "you leave it as you find it".
Kaiya and her family brought all their own belongings, including reusable plates, cutlery and barbecue - unlike the plastic plates and disposable barbecues which were left at the spot.