A town’s shellfish harvesting waters now rank among the cleanest in England after people previously "lost confidence" in its produce.

Southern Water had been criticised for “destroying” Whitstable’s world-famous reputation for seafood following sewage releases along the coastline.

And a few years ago, incidents of people falling ill after eating oysters were linked to spill events and led to sales being withdrawn temporarily.

But West Beach’s shellfish harvesting area has recently been upgraded from grade B to A – the highest rating and the first time it has been classified as such.

James Green, who heads the Whitstable Oyster Fishery Company (WOFC) and runs a sprawling farm off the coast of the town, is celebrating the news.

“This classification upgrade means the shellfish harvesting waters off Whitstable are among the cleanest in England at the moment,” he said.

“People buying Whitstable Oysters can be reassured they are buying not only top quality world-famous ones but also they are some of the safest oysters available to consume in England.”

Back in June 2021, the sale of oysters caught off Whitstable was suspended after people fell ill after eating them.

But within a month of the town’s famous delicacy returning, it was withdrawn again.

Mr Green previously told how there were “close to zero sales” three months after the incident as each time the company tried to open “there was another spill event and associated cases of norovirus”.

Shellfish harvesting areas are classified as A, B or C, with A being the least contaminated.

The latest findings are based on samples from the area between February 1 and July 31 by Canterbury City Council (CCC), authorised by the Food Standards Agency and the Centre of Environment Fisheries and Aquaculture Science.

It means shellfish can be sold for consumption straight from the sea, but the WOFC will continue testing and purifying oysters.

The firm says it is the only oyster company in England testing every batch of its oysters for norovirus, with the help of University of Kent experts and the support of Southern Water, which has sponsored its testing.

Celebrities Paul Whitehouse, Bob Geldof and Feargal Sharkey have all spoken about the impact of sewage on the area.

Other traders in the town have been impacted by sewage releases.

In 2022, the boss of West Whelks in the town’s harbour believed 150 years of heritage “has gone out of the window in one hit”.

Graham West blamed his struggle to sell Whitstable shellfish on the saga surrounding the water firm dumping wastewater into the sea, and said: “The public has lost all confidence.”

Southern Water was hit with a record £90 million fine in July 2021 after unleashing up to 21 billion litres of sewage into protected waters between 2010 and 2015.

It continues to face criticism over permitted releases off the Kent coast during periods of heavy rainfall, some of which have sparked warnings to bathers to avoid swimming in the sea.

Meanwhile, Mr Green recently urged campaigners to end what he describes as a “senseless” battle to curtail the firm’s harvesting operations earlier this year.

CCC had refused to accept the firm had produced an adequate safety assessment for the site - a decision that risked invalidating WOFC’s planning permission and could have forced it to remove the trestles.

But the local authority’s decision was overturned on appeal by the Planning Inspectorate this year in a move Mr Green says “brings to an end to any argument over the legality of the farm”.