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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Branwen Jones & Shawaz Ahmad

Welsh man refuses to pay parking ticket because it was issued in English

A man issued a parking ticket in English is refusing to pay the charge because it is not in Welsh.

Arwyn Groe received a parking charge at a car park in Ceredigion, West of Wales, in July, Wales Online reports.

He has been told that the fine has now been passed on to the debt counsellors.

Arwyn, who lives in Powys, Wales refused to pay the parking charge as the penalty notice was not written in Welsh.

This follows the case of Toni Schiavone’s, who had his parking charge thrown out because it wasn't written in Welsh after receiving it in September 2020.

Mr Schiavone's case was thrown out of court as there was no representative from One Parking Solutions present.

He won his case in Aberystwyth's civil court in May this year.

Toni Schiavone with supporters outside Aberystwyth justice centre during the earlier hearing (Cymdeithas yr Iaith)

The same car park company- One Parking Solution, will still be pursuing the case of Arwyn Groe, despite losing to a similar case previously.

Welsh-Language pressure group, Cymdeithas yr Iaith, say the parking company is now pursuing Arwyn Groe through a debt company for the same reason.

The vice-chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, Tamsin Davies said: "It is clear that neither the owner of the car park nor the company running it have any respect for or interest in the Welsh language.

"One campaigner has been to court after refusing to pay an English-only fine, and the company has decided not to listen.

"Private companies are not under an obligation to provide any Welsh language provision so they don't.

" Supermarkets and banks have told us many times in the past that they will not provide any services in Welsh until they are obliged to do so by law.

"So the answer is obvious - the current Language Measure needs to be extended to include private companies.

"And it is about time to do that. It has now been over ten years since the Welsh Language Measure was created."

Arwyn says he won't pay due to the fact it's only in English (MEDIA WALES)

Meanwhile, according to Cymdeithas yr Iaith, the parking company is now threatening to call at Arwyn Groe’s family home.

He said: "In this particular case, it is clear that the company in question has not learned from Tony Schiavone's stand and continues to show a lack of respect for the people of Wales even though they should know better by now.

"They can't hide behind a veil of ignorance about the situation anymore.

"As far as I'm concerned, giving in to their demands and threats would show a lack of respect for Tony's earlier stand, and send a message to the company that we are happy to comply with and accept their imperial arrogance.

"I'm not ready to do that."

Tamsin Davies vice-chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, believes whilst much success has come from campaigning, there is much more work to be done.

She said: "We can celebrate the many successes that have come through campaigning over the decades of course.

"But cases like this reminds us of the struggle of the Beasleys, who refused to pay their English only council tax bill and faced bailiffs, and reminds us that we still have to fight for things that should have been won long ago.

So the battle for the Welsh language is far from over."

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