ONE of the most interesting sets of rules and regulations on the starting blocks in recent weeks is the proposal by London"s Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for a set of social behaviour laws to deal with unruly supercar drivers.

I can see their point. I was in London some time ago and the spectacle of seeing these people hurling round the streets sounding their horns and revving engines does make you wonder why the authorities can"t do something about it.

But the new moves are certainly causing ruffles in the halls of the wealthy.

Alex Prindiville, owner of central London"s only supercar dealershiphas made a plea for moderation of the new rules which he sees as a move to demonise supercars.

"Existing laws are already perfectly adequate to deal with the minority of supercar drivers who step out of line, provided they are properly enforced," reasons Alex. "The proposed Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) to be applied to a large spread of Knightsbridge is using the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut.

"While I can fully sympathise with local residents who are upset by the anti-social behaviour of the few, the proposed terms of the PSPO are an excessive response - forbidden will be playing music loudly in your car, travelling in convoy, revving your engine, letting your engine idle, causing either a stationary or moving obstruction, sounding your horn, accelerating rapidly, and a few more things besides."

He continues: "Will these new rules be evenly applied to all, I wonder. Will three Range Rovers in a row taking kids to a party be treated as a convoy? If those Range Rovers then stop on double yellow lines to disgorge the children, will that be seen as a stationary obstruction? If the mums dropping the kids off then have a little chat by the roadside with their doors open and music playing inside the car, will they be prosecuted?

"I don"t doubt that some of the young drivers in their powerful supercars do cause a genuine nuisance, but apart from the price of their cars, are the rest of them so very different from young lads the length and breadth of this country? Existing police powers will sort out the troublemakers in Newcastle or Birmingham, Bristol or Brighton, so why does Kensington and Chelsea require anything extra?

"Besides which, if I show up in Knightsbridge with, say, three cars that I wish to show to a client, I don"t want to feel that I could be liable to prosecution simply for parking them all together. Good old-fashioned policing could sort out a lot of local residents" concerns - devising new laws is simply political posturing. Please let common sense prevail."

My view? Nothing wrong with giving the authorities some more options to deal with the real offenders providing the new powers are used in moderation. After all it is the lesser of two evils. The other is two words which have the drivers of ultra-low-slung sports cars running for cover - traffic humps.