Closure threat to Whitstable oysters
THE Whitstable Oyster Festival is threatened after Canterbury City Council served the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company with an order to remove all the oyster trestles from its land within two months.
The decision puts the town’s oyster production and 200 jobs at risk.Although the company owns the section of beach on which the trestles are situated, the metal structures have come under scrutiny regarding safety and licensing laws.
The company has increased capacity tenfold since 2010 and has 2,500 trestles from which it expects to harvest more than 100 tonnes of oysters this year.
James Green, director of the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company, said the move ‘will result in the 2018 Oyster Festival being the last oyster festival where Whitstable oysters will be available’.