I am standing on a muddy patch of land nudging the Severn Estuary, in the company of an inspirational community activist called Mark Pepper. We are here to look at building work on what will soon be not only the tallest wind turbine in England, but a crucial source of help for people at the financial sharp end. Thanks to a deal with a renewable energy company, the electricity the turbine produces will be sold to the National Grid, generating funds that will be used to subsidise the bills of vulnerable people who live a five-minute drive away.
Pepper is one of the founders of Ambition Lawrence Weston, a grassroots community group based seven miles from the middle of Bristol. A decade ago, spending cuts began to eat into the few amenities that local people had, and he and a handful of others decided they had to act.
