Ledbury Boxing Day hunts are going ahead this year

It is understood the hunt will go off from the centre of Ledbury at 10.45 am on December 26.

Comments about news that the Ross on Wye hunt will be going ahead this year divided social media opinion on the Hereford Times site.

Hundreds of readers fell each side of an emotively charged line on whether they support the tradition, or hate the fact it still happens.

Meantime protest groups have released details on what anti-hunt campaigners should look for if they are planning to attend.

They asked supporters to be tuned to and report health and safety breaches and have asked followers to look out for quad bikes with no number plates or obscured plates, horses on pedestrian zones or on pavements, and even riders using mobile phones while on horseback.

Details about the road closures agreed for the Radnor & West Hereford Hunt which rides out from Kington have been made public.

Councillors at the November 17 meeting of Kington Town Council considered a road closure proposal for the Boxing Day hunt on December 26, minutes show.

Members voted to support the proposal with four votes for and one against.

The meet in Kington is an annual tradition and the event has previously seen the town's Mill Street, between High Street and Crabtree Road, closed from 10.30am to 11.45am on December 26.

News about the dates and locations of hunts in Herefordshire has ignited a storm on social media, with over 600 comments, some supportive of the tradition, others very much against.

One Hereford Times reader posted: "Great British tradition, I love to watch them."

Another replied: "News that jolly day out for those that feel entitled to enjoy watching foxes get torn apart by dogs and cover it up as a 'trail' hunt. No thanks."

Elsewhere in Herefordshire, the Ross Harriers have confirmed that they will be meeting in the town on December 26 and will be passing the Market House at 11.30am on their way to drag hunt.

The Herefordshire and Clifton Hunt on Boxing Day alternates between Bromyard and Leominster and is this year expected to leave from the former.

There is also a meet in Golden Valley which begins in Haye-on-Wye.

While fox hunting, deer-hunting and hare-coursing with dogs has been outlawed for almost 20 years, hunting groups have taken to conducting horseback parades with packs of dogs in traditional hunting locations, most prominently on Boxing Day.