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Seven Norfolk MPs were in the party which delivered the Make It Marham petition to Downing Street

In just two weeks 36,751 signatures have been collected calling for RAF Marham in Norfolk to remain the home of the Tornado. That's twice as many as signed the petition calling for the A11 to be dualled.

"It's absolutely fantastic," said Norfolk County Council leader Derrick Murphy. "It shows how much people in Norfolk feel about saving Marham.

"I sincerely hope the government now gets the message and being here in this weather shows how determined we are to put our case."

There certainly was a cold wind in Westminster but councillors and members of the local media were hoping it would blow them some good as the petition was handed in to Downing Street before MPs met with Defence Secretary Liam Fox at the Ministry of Defence.

"He said that he'd heard the argument (for Marham) 20 times, which means the message is getting through," said Elizabeth Truss, the MP for South West Norfolk, who's been leading the campaign.

"What we're going to do now is just keep repeating the message and making sure it's also heard by the prime minister and the treasury because what I don't want is the decision being made on political grounds without considering the proper economic circumstances."

Thirty six thousand signatures is far more than the number of people who marched in support of keeping open RAF Lossiemouth, the other Tornado base that's under threat. It was the size of that march that galvanised our Norfolk MPs into action. They wanted to show that Marham meant just as much to its local community.

And today the Make it Marham campaign produced new research which claims that the airbase is worth £208m to the local economy, nearly double what was originally thought.

So after a fortnight of lobbying, petition collecting and asking questions in the House of commons, is Marham any safer?

No-one can be sure.

People with good connections in the Ministry of Defence are telling us that the argument for Marham has been well made and understood. There are also suggestions that Marham and Lossiemouth's fate may be tied up with that of RAF Leuchars in North East Fife. Might Leuchars be closed instead and its aircraft transferred to Lossiemouth enabling Lossie's Tornadoes to come to Marham?

But some of those who were at today's meeting with Dr Fox were concerned to hear him talk about troops returning from Germany. Could Marham instead become an Army base? And what about the Scottish elections? Closing an airbase north of the border so close to an important vote would do the Lib Dems no good and boost the fortunes of the SNP.

Dr Fox said he'll make his decision early in the new year. Let's hope it's a happy one for the people of Marham.

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