HUNDREDS of people have signed a petition to save a shed in Southampton used to build Spitfire planes in the Second World War.

As reported in The Echo, the sheds on Wide Lane in Swaythling are subject to the approval of an ongoing planning application by Warehouse Developers Tungsten Properties for the former Ford factory site.

It has been revealed that the building is not listed or on council-owned land, so as it stands the fate of the structure is up to the owner Ford Motor Company.

The sheds are described as “lower significance” in planning application documents, but campaigners have disagreed.

Alan Matlock - chair of Southampton-based Spitfire Makers Charitable Trust has launched a Change.org petition to raise awareness of the structure’s potential loss.

It already has more than 2,500 signatures.

Alan said: “It is the only surviving building that has an association with the Spitfire from the very first to the very last - it is unique.

“It is part of the heritage of this city, the country and indeed the world and the unsung many men and women who worked inside it during the dark days of WWII deserve to be commemorated along with the pilots who tested and delivered the plane for the famous Few to fly it in combat.”

Alan Jones, director of the Solent Sky Museum said losing the flight test sheds would be tragic, adding: “We’ve lost the Spitfire factory in Woolston. We can’t lose this too.”