Imagine you walk out of your house one day on your suburban housing estate and are confronted by a group of 30 or 30 men and women riding motorbikes down the street in the middle of the road.

They are all dressed the same in what look like 'gang' colours and they all have dogs with them – off their leads.

When you ask them what they are doing, they say they are just going for a ride along a predetermined route, it's their business and no one else's and they are not doing any harm.

What's more, they say, they've been doing it for years and intend to keep on doing it.

Because the dogs are off their leads, the odd cat might get chased through someone's garden, but that's OK, isn't it? And maybe, accidentally, one of the cats might get killed – but it wasn't intentional so no harm done.

Ask yourself what would your response be?

I suspect I might be on the phone to the police, demanding they sort it out sharpish.

But let's just replay that situation.

Instead of motorbikes, let's say they are riding horses. Instead of gang colours, let's say they are wearing hacking jackets.

The dogs are still off the lead though and maybe it's a fox that's accidentally chased.

When you ask them what they are doing, they say they are just going for a ride along a predetermined route, it's their business and no one else's and they are not doing any harm.

What's more, they say, they've been doing it for years and intend to keep on doing it.

Again, I would ask you what your response would be and do you think the police should be involved?

The Hunting Act 2004 banned the hunting of wild mammals but the does not cover the use of dogs in the process of flushing out an unidentified wild mammal. nor does it affect drag hunting, where hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent.

But recent trail hunts in Cheshire have seen accusations that foxes are being killed and have generated a number of police investigations.

Step forward Police and Crime Commissioner and Warrington councillor David Keane.

An independent review based on Cheshire’s policing of hunts between 2015 and 2017 was published last December, with 11 recommendations for the force set to be followed up in an action plan, which Mr Keane said he will monitor in scrutiny meetings.

And one of those meetings took place last week with PCC Keane questioning newly-appointed Chief Constable Darren Martland on how the force deals with hunt-related incidents.

Mr Keane suggested the force would consider introducing an ‘event plan’ for hunts – which could include details of the route the hunt intended to take, the scent laid out and a record of which landowners had given permissions for the hunts to cross their land.

Mr Keane said: “To keep everyone safe should be the primary concern of this constabulary and I would applaud the constabulary if it was to take on this measure to ensure everybody is working within the law."

Well said, Mr Keane. How could anyone object to that? Surely public safety must be the absolute priority and as the hunts insist they are not doing anything wrong, they are bound to buy in to Mr Keane's excellent ideas, aren't they?

Well maybe not. Step forward the Countryside Alliance. A spokesman said: “The Cheshire hunts operate entirely legally and have always cooperated with the police.

“They are not, however, going to be dragged into the ignorant and wasteful campaign which the PCC is pursuing.

“The real question Mr Keane should be asking is how he is going to justify the ridiculous waste of money and diversion of resources from real crime which is resulting from his obsession with hunting.”

What a staggering response that is, what a remarkable sense of entitlement.

The law is the law and it applies to everyone, no matter how posh your accent or how fat your bank balance is.

For the record, Cheshire Police received 200 reports of incidents in the 2018-19 hunt season – including 51 alleged criminal offences, compared to 19 in 2017-18.