In time, Bachtler and Lauterberg hope to make the hub part of a bigger community space incorporating the local credit union, a debt counselling service (debt, sadly, is a big issue in Cambuslang) and a library (the council library is being axed).
Given their extraordinary energy, I am sure they will get their wish. As for the hub they helped create, it is now being cloned across the country in towns that all the banks have deserted.
I also believe the campaigning work being done by the Philips Trust Action Group borders on the magnificent.
For the past year or so, members of this group have piled the pressure on several building societies to provide compensation to those customers who lost money because of being introduced to third-party will writing and trust fund services through the branch networks.
The initial providers were the Will Writing Company and the Family Trust Corporation (both part of Estate Planning Group).
But the real problems occurred when Philips Trust Corporation came on the scene to look after the assets of customers previously watched over by FTC. When Philips Trust subsequently went into administration, it soon became obvious that customers’ assets had been grossly mismanaged (and that’s being polite) and that little remained of them.
Until recently, the building societies, which received commission payments for introducing customers to Estate Planning Group, have largely washed their hands of the £138mn scandal.
But the brilliant campaigning of the action group – for example, its shrewd use of local newspapers to highlight what has happened to customers and its attendance at recent building society annual general meetings – has paid off. On Thursday, Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham announced a generous compensation deal.
I’ve spoken to several key members of the action group – many one step removed from the scandal because they fought on behalf of elderly parents. Like the Bates, Bachtlers and Lauterbergs of this country, they are in my mind real heroes.
We should salute them until the cows come home.
Jeff Prestridge is group wealth and personal finance editor of DMGT
