Licencing laws are changing quick, Gliding Licences haven't come into force yet as we operate under national regulation and there's still some questionmarks over when it'll change. In simplest terms gliding experience can be credited towards a initial PPL but you might only get a 10 hour reduction off the minimum. However once you are at licence standard with gliders, with only 6 hours training you can convert to a motorglider which gives you a halfway house and at a cost of around £80ph and cruises around 80kt, that's been my route into power. From there, avenues open up to flying Cessnas/Pipers etc after some more training. Again there's a lot of change occurring in licencing, so don't worry about SPLs etc yet. Do gliding for the handling skills, networking and fun, once you get yourself to licence standard then see what the situation is, gliding takes just as much skill and practice to learn as power flying. Even just going solo in a glider will set you in good steed for interviews as well as scholarship applications and won't cost you anywhere near as much. (PPL solo generally costs north of £2k). And if you are lucky you might be able to get your solo paid for as there is a lot of bursaries and scholarships available for gliding Pop down to Ringmer and see what the score is. Have fun
P.S As a flying instructor I can guarantee a PPL lesson every 8 weeks will get you nowhere. Needs to be every month as a minimum. Same goes for Gliding.