Faversham Oyster Fishery Company Act 2017

WHEREAS—

1. 1

   The Faversham Oyster Fishery Company (“the Company”) was incorporated pursuant to the Faversham Oyster Fishery Act 1930 (“the 1930 Act”) as the successor to the Company or Fraternity of the Free Fishermen and Dredgermen of Faversham, which, as described in that Act, had managed and carried on the Faversham Oyster Fishery from time out of mind:

2. 2

   The Company’s statutory business comprises the regulating, carrying on and management of the oyster fishery within the limits of the Manor and Hundred of Faversham in Kent and various incidental purposes:

3. 3

   The Company wishes to extend its activities to more general trading activities and to carry on activities beyond the oyster fishery and it would be of public advantage if the Company’s objects were changed so that it could carry out the business of a general commercial company and without certain of the restrictions and limitations imposed on the Company by the 1930 Act remaining applicable to it:

4. 4

   For a number of years, the Company has, in accordance with the legislation by which it is governed, sent material on at least an annual basis to the shareholders listed on its register of shareholders at the addresses shown on the register. In a number of cases it is clear that either the shareholder must have died (due to the date on which the shareholder was first registered) or must have moved to a different address (because the material is returned):

5. 5

   It is expedient for the Company to be able to sell the shares of shareholders in cases where the shareholder is unlikely to be alive or where the whereabouts of the shareholder or the shareholder’s successor cannot be ascertained, in order to terminate uncertain legal relationships and to relieve the Company of the need to maintain assets to cover liabilities to those shareholders in respect of unclaimed dividends:

6. 6

   Certain statutory provisions regulating the Company’s affairs are outmoded having regard to present-day requirements and it is expedient to enable the Company’s powers to be modernised:

7. 7

   The objects of this Act cannot be attained without the authority of Parliament: