A Welsh-language campaigner embroiled in a three-year legal battle after refusing to pay a car park fine written in English has claimed the management firm is “threatening” him with a £10,000 legal bill. Toni Schiavone was given the £70 penalty notice in a car park managed by One Parking Solution in the seaside town of Llangrannog, west Wales, in September 2020. He has said he is happy to pay the penalty notice, but only if the parking company, which is based in south-east England, translated it into Welsh, which he estimates would cost them about £60. At a hearing on Friday, the judge, Gareth Humphreys, said it was unfortunate the case, which has become a cause celebre among Welsh language champions, had dragged on for so long and asked the company to consider whether it was worth pursuing. Otherwise, a county court hearing to decide the case will take place at a later date. Schiavone told the court: “This issue could have been resolved very easily and very quickly by providing a Welsh or bilingual notice, which would have cost around £60 to translate.” He said he felt he was the victim of “harassment” and told the judge he had received in the post on Thursday a letter from One Parking Solution stating they were claiming more than £10,000 in legal costs. “I think that’s wrong, threatening, without need,” he told the court, adding that he thought it showed the company wanted revenge rather than justice. The judge, sitting in Wrexham, north Wales, confirmed that the cost schedule he had received was for £10,156 and dated 24 January. He said this “certainly would not be allowed” because Schiavone had not acted unreasonably. The company’s barrister, Richard Mullan, said it would not pursue costs. During the hearing, Schiavone and the judge spoke in Welsh, the company’s barrister in English. Schiavone has twice before thought he had won the case but the company appealed and Humphreys agreed that mistakes had been made in how it had been previously dealt with. After the hearing, Cai Phillips, of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, the Welsh Language Society, said: “We call on One Parking Solution to drop the case. This company has chosen to make an example of Toni rather than provide a very simple Welsh service.” Cymdeithas has long criticised the Welsh Language Measure 2011, which places duties on bodies to provide services in Welsh, for being weak, ambiguous and not always enforced. It says it is particularly poor in areas of the private sector such as banking, post offices and supermarkets. Car parks are not covered by the law. It wants the Welsh government and the Welsh language commissioner to revise the measure to include aspects of the private sector.