slipnpitch
Here is the best way of obtaining a PPL. It is the cheapest.
Get your medical done. If you have around £2000 in readies get onto
Planes and Aircraft For Sale - Light Aircraft, Autogyros, Helicopters ... (UK). (Share & Groups) You can buy a share in a light a/c suitable for training for around £2K or less.
Talk to someone who knows light a/c and can advise you as to the most congenial training a/c eg. C150/152. PA38 (bit thin on the ground) PA28. Eurostar Group A (assuming you are going for Group A) or any other a/c that offers benign handling and has been used for training.
Go to your local flying club and check the advertising pages of Pilot/Flyer and pay for your own instructor to take you thru' the syllabus and ground school. At the end of it all you'll require an examiner. Your instructor will be able to arrange this.
At the end of it all, you'll have passed and still own a share in the familiar a/c you trained upon and which you can continue to fly and enjoy or, if you're fed up - sell and buy something else.
You can sit down with paper and pencil to do the sums to see how cost effective this method is without having to pay extortionate, profit loaded sums to FTOs that do not, as you've found out, appear to have much interest in you as a person rather than a cash machine.
Good luck and best wishes whichever route you take.