AN ONLINE petition to bring three beloved radio hosts back to the airwaves has reached a new milestone.

Last month Heart Sussex breakfast’s Tom Evans, Nicola Hume and Jack “The Lad” Hayes presented their final show.

The petition, listed on the change.org website, is still up – despite the hosts now having left – and has now received more than 10,000 signatures.

The trio left after Heart Sussex was shut down, with the station moving from Portslade to Fareham.

The decision was made by Heart’s parent company Global.

Tom, Nicola and Jack have been replaced with a more nationalised show, hosted by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden.

But such is the love for the three disc jockeys that numerous online campaigns have been set up to try and get Tom, Nicola and Jack back on the air.

When it was first announced by Global that the Heart Sussex office in Franklin Road would close, along with a number of other local radio stations across the country, there was an outpouring of grief from radio listeners in Brighton and beyond.

The petition was then created to help the three keep their jobs.

There is also a page on Facebook called “Bring Back Tom Nicola and Jack The Lad” which has more than 7,000 followers.

The page has now also been adapted to additionally ask for the return of “producer Brian” - referring to show producer Brian Noon.

The group says: “As of Friday, May 31, Tom, Nicola and Jack did their last ever show on Heart Sussex. I think this has upset many people across the region.

“Please invite as many friends to join the group and hopefully we can get the guys reinstated to their mics and bring laughter and joy to all of Sussex.”

Meanwhile the three former Heart presenters have been moving on from their time on the station by finding other work.

Jack has been named as the newest employee at Love Local Jobs - a jobs board focussing on the South East.

Jack will be leading the company’s newest Love Local Jobs Foundation CIC programme, Dare to Dream.

While Tom has teased some work at BBC Sussex radio.

He posted a photo on Twitter with the statement “new home for a while...coming soon”. The tweet was accompanied by a photo of a BBC sign and the tag #sussexandsurrey.

There has been no update from Nicola since leaving Heart, but she did tweet about going to see the Backstreet Boys at London’s O2 Arena.