RIDER Sarah-Jane Ambridge is puzzled and appalled after discovering dozens of pre-mixed gin and tonic cans on her almost daily rides around West Buckland.

Sarah-Jane, of Stoford Lane, who rides there and in the Silver Street and Lippe Hill areas, says she counted 37 cans last week.

She wonders whether whoever is dumping the cans has an alcohol problem but is annoyed about the damage caused to the environment and wildlife by littering.

Sarah-Jane, who has recently moved to area, said: “I am amazed at the phenomenal amounts of empty gin and tonic cans I see discarded in the ditches, verges and hedgerows.

“I never see any people walking, cycling and hardly any other riders, so where are they coming from?

“My friend, who has lived locally for several years, didn’t believe me until we rode out together and now she is as concerned and intrigued as I am.”

Sarah-Jane said the cans, interspersed with the odd lager can, were on both sides of the lanes and wondered if they were thrown from the window of a moving car.

She thought the problem may diminish when the village store closed but that has not been the case.

The cans are not so obvious as the verges ‘green up’ at this time of year but new cans still appear as the perpetrator dumps them and they bounce off the greenery.