Welsh man refuses to pay English parking fine

A man from Wales has refused to pay a £60 parking fine as it was only written in English.

Arwyn Groe, who lives in Powys, was issued with the fine at a car park in Llangrannog, Ceredigion, in July.

He's been told the time has now passed to pay the fine and has been forwarded to debt collectors.

Mr Groe has been a Welsh language campaigner in Powys for many years and refused to pay the fine as the penalty notice and all correspondence that followed were not in Welsh as well as English.

The car park managers pursing this £60 fine are One Parking Solutions Ltd, who have already had a court case this year.

Heidi Stewart / Alamy Stock Photo

They lost that case to former teacher and education officer for the Welsh Government, Toni Schiavone, who won his case in Aberystwyth’s civil court in May.

Like Mr Groe, Mr Schiavone refused to pay the English-only parking fine and was taken to court by the car park.

Mr Schiavone case was thrown out after no representatives from One Parking Solutions turned up to the court hearing.

The car company is now pursuing Mr Groe through a debt company for the same reason, according to Welsh-language pressure group, Cymdeithas yr Iaith.

The vice-chair of the group, 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."

She continued: "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."

Cymdeithas yr Iaith

Mr Groe said: "In this particular case, it is clear that the company in question has not learned from Toni 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 Toni'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."

Mr Groe admitted that he had been threatened with bailiffs being sent to his house.

He told Wales Online: "Now, they are threatening to send bailiffs to my house, but the most important thing to me is to stand with Toni. 

"I’m very frustrated with the weakness of the law, we must put pressure on the company in order to put pressure on other companies, and ultimately put pressure on the government."

LADbible has contacted One Parking Solutions Ltd for a comment.