Given the Government's determination to cover the countryside in wind farms, it is to be hoped the confidence of protesters over a huge site in Northumberland is justified.

Energy secretary John Hutton yesterday gave the go-ahead to plans to build eighteen 125-metre high turbines, at Middlemoor, near Alnwick.

But it cannot be built until energy giant npower comes up with a way of preventing the turbines interfering with RAF radar systems.

Nick Blezard - chairman of the Save Northumberland's Environment, which opposed the project - says this is effectively a refusal given the radar issue.

We can only hope he is right and that the Government - reluctant to admit defeat - is spinning Middlemoor as a "go-ahead" knowing that the radar caveat will halt the project.

That said, the Ministry of Defence is, obviously, run by the Government.

Some may find the willingness of both the MoD and energy company to work together on this problem something of a concern.

And with a group of politicians in the background who are seemingly desperate to erect hundreds of these huge monuments to their Green credentials, who would blame them?

They have already rigged the planning system in favour of wind farms and constantly overplayed the contribution they will make.

Is it any wonder people will raise an eyebrow if some modification to either the RAF's radar or the design of these turbines suddenly makes Middlemoor viable?