A CHILDREN’S centre involved in an E coli investigation remains closed with no date set for its reopening.

Blandford Children’s Centre in Black Lane was closed after three children who had visited it suffered from a rare strain of E coli.

A spokesperson for Dorset County Council confirmed that it was still closed and they had no information on when it might reopen.

The E coli outbreak has affected 11 people who are either all resident in Dorset or had visited the area since July. Blandford Children’s Centre was closed for three days in October after a child who attended it was diagnosed with the 055 E coli strain.

Deep cleaning work was carried out and the centre reopened but there was then a second case involving a child from Blandford who had attended both the Blandford and the Shaftesbury Children’s Centres.

Both premises were deep cleaned but on Monday, November 24 a third child who attends the Blandford Children’s Centre nursery was diagnosed with the bug.

No evidence of a direct link between the nursery and the cases has been found but Dorset County Council opted to close the centre voluntarily while they waited for the results of tests on staff and children.

‘Crucial that action is taken’

SPECIALIST lawyers representing victims of illness outbreaks have urged authorities to work quickly to identify the source of the E coli in Dorset.

Lawyers said the 10 people who had been infected since July had a right to expect answers from Public Health England (PHE) Specialist lawyers at Irwin Mitchell, who have successfully represented over 1,000 victims who have fallen ill in a single outbreak of illness, including many E coli victims, said it was crucial the source was identified as soon as possible.

Amandeep Dhillon, a partner and leading public health lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, said: “It is very serious that so many cases of E coli have been confirmed by PHE in recent weeks and it is crucial that action is taken by health authorities to investigate the cause of these issues thoroughly and identify the cause of causes of the outbreak and any links between individual cases.”