A SHELLFISH ban in Southampton Water has been extended for another week after high levels of E-coli were discovered.

Southampton’s Port Health Service (SPHS) carried out tests on Monday, after it closing the shellfish beds last Friday.

The fishing ban was imposed as a precaution after a leak at Southern Water’s sewage works in Woolston on Tuesday, November 17.

The pollution incident has not been proved as the source of the E.Coli.

Other factors could include run-off from recent heavy rainfall.

The results were below the usual trigger level for closing the beds, but the SPHS decided to keep them closed pending further tests on Monday.

Earlier this week several fishermen and shellfish merchants told the Daily Echo that they’d received no correspondence about the ban.

Fisherman Steven Boyd, whose son skippers the family boat Grayling, said: “We should have been notified.”