{"id":12998,"date":"2023-08-06T08:20:46","date_gmt":"2023-08-06T08:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=12998"},"modified":"2023-08-06T08:51:32","modified_gmt":"2023-08-06T08:51:32","slug":"english-linguistic-chauvinism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=12998","title":{"rendered":"English linguistic chauvinism defeated twice in Welsh courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little over a year ago, this blog covered the case of a Welsh court dismissing the case of a Welsh motorist prosecuted for not paying a parking charge because the notice and other correspondence were all in English and the refusal of the parking management company’ – One Parking Solution (whose registered office is in Worthing, West Sussex. Ed.<\/em>) to provide the court with Welsh translations thereof. (posts passim<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\r\n\r\n

When a judge dismisses the case, that’s the end of it, isn’t it?<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Usually.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Nevertheless, in this instance the monoglot English parking company decided to appeal the original judge’s decision, as Nation Cymru reports<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"A
A bilingual car park sign in Caernarfon. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n

The case at Aberystwyth Justice Centre did not go well for One Parking Solution, even though the company had in this instance bothered to send legal counsel to the court.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Deputy judge Owain Williams decided the company had delayed for too long before launching its appeal and introduced it under incorrect rules.<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

In addition, the judge ordered that One Parking Solution pay Mr Schiavone’s travel expenses. The defendant said that this money would be donated to Cancer Research Wales.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Mr Schiavone was triumphant, stating:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

The travel costs of the counsel alone are more than the cost of translating the fine and the cost of conducting the case are a hundred times or more the cost of providing a Welsh fine.

\r\n\r\nThe company\u2019s attitude has been completely contemptuous and completely against the rights of Welsh speakers.<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

Si\u00e2n Howys, of Cymdeithas yr Iaith<\/a>\u2019s Welsh Language Rights Group, stated the following after the hearing:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe are pleased that the judge ruled in favour of the defendant, as in a similar case in Caernarfon, where the judge Mervyn Evans-Jones ruled that the defendant did not need to pay an English-only fine.

\r\n\r\nIt is becoming increasingly evident that these companies need to change their attitudes towards the Welsh language. To put pressure on them we will today be launching a campaign encouraging people not to pay for parking in car parks with English-only signs, nor to pay the resultant fines.

\r\n\r\nThe Government should set Standards in this area and for other businesses, such as supermarkets and banks, so that there is a requirement for the private sector to provide their services in Welsh.<\/blockquote>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little over a year ago, this blog covered the case of a Welsh court dismissing the case of a Welsh motorist prosecuted for not paying a parking charge because the notice and other correspondence were all in English and the refusal of the parking management company’ – One Parking Solution (whose registered office is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32],"tags":[36,16,22,33],"class_list":["post-12998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-media","tag-comment","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-media-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12998"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13022,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12998\/revisions\/13022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}