A Welshman who has refused to pay a parking fine that was issued to him in English is back before a court for the fourth time.
Toni Schiavone will appear in court in Aberystwyth on May 13 over his refusal to pay the parking charge notice.
Schiavone was issued the £60 fine in 2020 after using a Llangrannog car park managed by One Parking Solution, based in West Sussex.
However, he declined to pay for it unless the correspondence was issued to him in Welsh.
Toni Schiavone was issued the fine parking in Llangrannog
Cymdeithas yr Iaith/Google Maps
The case appeared before court in 2022 but was thrown out because a representative from the parking company was not present.
A second was brought in August 2023 but was once again thrown out because the case did not adhere to rules and was presented late. At the time, One Parking Solution was ordered to pay Mr Schiavone’s travel expenses of £27.90 for the hearing.
However, the company won an appeal to reintroduce the case in January this year, after a judge ruled that there were no grounds to throw the first two cases out of court.
It is believed the case has cost the parking company over £10,000 in legal fees to date. It comes as judge, Gareth Humphreys, warned that the company should carefully consider the value of continuing with a case that has already been "long, beyond unfortunate."
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Toni Schiavone will appear in court in Aberystwyth later this month
Google Maps
Cymdeithas yr Iaith, The Welsh Language Society, has said the cost of translating the notice into Welsh would have cost the parking company just £60.
Chair of the group Siân Howys said: "It is disappointing that One Parking Solution has decided to resubmit this case, but the real reason that Toni has to go to court again is because the rights of the people of Wales to use the Welsh language have not been secured in statute.
"We have seen other cases of this recently as HSBC and the energy company OVO downgraded or cancelled their Welsh services, without any firm response from our Government."
"We call on our members and supporters to be there on 13 May to support Toni, and to demand that the right to use the Welsh language in all aspects of life is respected and that through legislation."
On Jan 30, the Welsh Government voted against Heledd Fychan MS’s motion on behalf of Plaid Cymru in the Senedd to set Welsh language standards on a statutory basis for institutions in the private sector, such as banks, supermarkets and private car parks.
