So far more than 1,400 concerned readers have signed the petition at our offices in Batley, Dewsbury and Cleckheaton, and online on our websites.

You have until Monday September 15 to add your name to the list if you haven’t done so already. Then our editor Hannah Ridgeway and Batley and Spen MP Mike Wood will be presenting the petition to the management at Fox’s.

The factory’s parent company Northern Foods announced plans to merge its Batley and Uttoxeter sites, but has not said at which of the two locations the new factory will be built.

Uttoxter has the room to expand on its current site, while for Batley it would mean the closure of the factory in Wellington Street, where it has been based for more than 80 years, and moving to a bigger purpose-built unit. But a suitable site of around 20 acres (10 football pitches) has yet to be found. If Batley loses the factory to Uttoxeter, around 1,900 local people would be out of work.

l Sign the petition at The Batley News, 11 Commercial Street, Batley; Dewsbury Reporter, 17 Wellington Road, Dewsbury; or Spenborough Guardian, 1 Market Street, Cleckheaton.