The Ministry of Defence has won its fight to prevent three Hebridean crofters from building wind turbines.

Despite previously siding with the crofters, Western Isles Council has now refused planning permission to build the generators on their crofts in South Uist.

The MoD insists the single turbine at Frobost and the two separate ones in the village of Bornish would affect air defence radar - one of just six in the UK - based about 26 miles away at Clettraval, North Uist.

Planning permission was granted by Western Isles Council in November last year.

But the MoD halted the process by winning a judicial review in the Court of Session in Edinburgh this summer. Judge Lord Doherty said the council's decision was irrational.

He quashed the planning permission saying the ­planning committee acted ultra vires, or beyond their powers.

The three crofters tried again and submitted a new application.

Island planners threw it out by six votes to four at a special meeting this week.

The MoD says turbines create extra clutter and interference, making it more difficult to tell the difference between individual turbines and planes in addition to reducing the ability to track the unknown aircraft.

It said tests "concluded that wind turbines can have detrimental effects on the operation of radar".