THIS was a very important month for Wiltshire.

The Secretary of State for Defence set out plans for the lay down of future army base locations, given the new Army 2020 structure and the plans to bring home the 20,000 troops currently stationed in Germany.

I was delighted that the proposals reaffirmed the importance of Wiltshire and, specifically, Salisbury Plain.

The moves will save taxpayers almost £250million a year and deliver a £2billion boost to the British economy.

Wiltshire MPs gave a special cheer on hearing the county will see new investment of up to £800million and an increase in regular army manpower of 4,000 by 2020.

Wiltshire Council and local military leaders have been preparing for possible increases in troop numbers and so there are already plans for new schools, a possible new University Technical College in Salisbury (which both I and John Glen strongly support), more housing earmarked for the area and an active Military-Civilian Integration Partnership to help with other issues like employment for service spouses.

For those worried the Plain may see more training activity, I was reassured by the MoD that the training increase will be minimal as personnel numbers will ramp up gradually and the current high intensity of training, which has been driven by the activity in Afghanistan, will tail off with the return of our troops in 2014.

I also took the opportunity in Prime Minister’s Questions this month to ask David Cameron to mark the occasion of International Women’s Day by paying tribute to the work of Wiltshire Police and Wiltshire Victim Support Services in dealing with the often hidden crime of domestic violence. He was happy to oblige.