The Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company (WOFC) has submitted a planning application to extend the seating area of its Forge oyster shack onto a beach section used for boat storage by the Whitstable Yacht Club. The proposal, which includes decking and a pergola, has attracted more than 200 opposing submissions, including from the Environment Agency, which has raised concerns about potential impacts on flood defences.
Business expansion versus local opposition
James Green, 58, director of WOFC, a family business tracing its roots to 1793, says the opposition reflects a broader national issue. "I don't like to use the term but it is nimbyism," he said. "Why did it become personal? I don't know really. Because we're a family business, it's a relatively small town?"
The company harvests about 2 million oysters annually from Whitstable's seabeds, with half sold locally in its hotel and four seafront restaurants. Green argues the expansion is vital for growth, noting the business employs 200 people and could take on more. The new seating would allow visitors to enjoy "half a dozen oysters and a glass of muscadet" on the sand, he said.
Historical context and past conflicts
Whitstable's oyster industry once thrived, with over 100 boats harvesting about 80 million oysters annually for Billingsgate fish market in 1865. However, by the 1970s, overfishing, pollution, and introduced diseases had collapsed the industry. Green's father, Barrie, bought WOFC in 1976 when it had just one employee and was barely functioning.
In 2008, James and his brother Richard began industrial-scale farming of non-native Pacific rock oysters, helping to restore Whitstable's reputation as "Britain's Oysteropolis." But the Greens fought a lengthy and expensive campaign nearly a decade ago to maintain the thousands of metal racks offshore where the oysters grow.
Community backlash and legal history
Some residents have described the proposed extension as "a carbuncle" and a "horrifying visual, physical and commercial intrusion." One called it "disastrous" that the cafe would serve alcohol and seafood on both sides of the King Charles III coastal path. Paul McNally, speaking for the Whitstable Beach Campaign, said the group's remit is "to protect the unspoilt nature of Whitstable beach and maintain public access to it. Both of which would be compromised by the current development proposal."
This is not the first time Green has faced opposition. He spent £1 million on a planning application for the racks, and five years ago, a licensing application for a similar extension of the Forge failed, partly due to opposition from the Whitstable Yacht Club, which leases the beach from WOFC. A district judge then noted that Green, an "able and determined businessman," had "generated some public animosity towards him personally," becoming a "source of tension, even open hostility, with some within the local community."
Current stance and outlook
This time, the yacht club has dropped its objection after being offered a better lease in exchange for giving up some space. Stuart Heaver, a Green party councillor in Whitstable who opposes the extension, acknowledged the personal nature of the dispute: "People are highly protective of the beach, and it's a maritime town. It is a close-knit community and people get very excited when people try to alter things."
Green remains defiant, arguing that tourism is essential to Whitstable's economy. "In this day and age you have to do things that are going to make it somewhere people want to go," he said. "To me, it is completely bonkers that it shouldn't be supported. I am not looking to build flats on the beach – it's decking and a pergola, for fuck's sake." The planning application is still under review by Canterbury city council, with a decision pending.
