A village pub has incensed residents by introducing pay- and-display charges in its car park.

Welsh brewery Brains, which took over The Bowl Inn in Almondsbury last July, has installed ticket machines in its 38-bay car park opposite.

It now costs £1 to park for three hours, or £5 for the whole day. Signs in the car park on Church Road state that anyone who does not pay could be charged £50 by private traffic enforcement contractors. The move has angered parents at the nearby Almondsbury C of E Primary School in Sundays Hill, who have used the pub's private car park to drop off and pick up their children for more than 25 years under an informal agreement with the previous owners.

Many are now threatening to boycott the pub altogether.

The Bowl Inn's manager defended the charge, saying that parents using the car park forced out the pub's hotel guests, and that delivery vans had to stop in the road. Customers will get their parking fee back when they buy something from the bar or restaurant.

But parent Brigid Hewett, whose two children go to Almondsbury Primary, says the move ignores the needs of the community, and that there was no consultation.

Mrs Hewett, 43, an academic registrar who lives in the village, said: "I have used the car park since 2004 but I won't park there now, and I won't drink there either.

"It is very disappointing that a community pub takes no notice of its community's needs and its situation. We know Almondsbury is congested and has parking problems, so taking away one of its only parking facilities shows a complete disregard for the needs of the community."

She said the first parents knew of the change was when the signs went up on Wednesday.

Fiona Kettle, 37, a sales assistant of Upper Almondsbury, has two children at the school and said she was concerned the move could put children's lives in danger.

She said: "There are cars parked everywhere throughout the village, and children will have to walk in the road as there are no proper footpaths."

Tanya Andrews, whose son Joseph, eight, is in Year 4 at the school, said charging to park was "exploitation".

Mrs Andrews, 43, a trainer for Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "I could understand if we were parking there at noon, but no one uses the car park at 8.30am, and that is when the children need to be there.

"At £10 a week it will mount up – it is exploitation."

The Bowl Inn's manager, Nick Torrance-Jones, said the decision to install pay and display machines had come from Brains' head office. They also want to extend the pub's opening hours from 11am to 11pm.

He said: "We have a massive problem where customers can't park because the bays are being used by parents from the local school."

He added: "Parents have been given the right to park in the garden centre on Over Lane in the mornings and afternoons. It is safer to use that path, and it is only about five minutes away."

Sheila Cook, chairwoman of Almondsbury's Parish Council, said: "This is a growing village, and there have always been two schools of thought about whether a car park should be provided somewhere. Perhaps now it is time to have that wider debate on whether we need one."