A resident has accused Malvern Hills District Council of being greedy after it installed ticket machines in the two car parks in Newtown Road.

Ron Harris has lived in Newtown Road for the past two and a half years and says he has always used the smaller of the two car parks.

But this week pay and display ticket machines were installed and he now faces an annual bill of £365 to park his car.

"Why does the council have to be so greedy?" asked Mr Harris.

"I don't mind paying charges and if they made the smaller car park a residents' only car park I would have been happy to pay an annual fee of £50."

Mr Harris said he had started using the car park when his car was vandalised several times after being left on the road. It was also damaged by traffic trying to squeeze past buses parked at the stop opposite.

Ward councillor David Williams said he had been against making the car parks pay and display from the start.

"I think it's appalling to force cars off car parks and on to the road," he said.

"There are only 13 spaces in that smaller car park and we're spending several thousand pounds on machines, plus there's the cost of administering the machines.

"It doesn't make economic sense and after three months I'm going to ask for a report on how much it has cost."

His fellow ward councillor Graham Myatt shared his concern.

"I can't figure out how they will recover their costs," he said.

"In my mind they'd do a better deal in having contract car park spaces for the residents. I know that's against council policy but it has to have a human and pragmatic face."

Paul Sobczyk, head of client services at MHDC, said all the car parks were measured for their performance, particularly when a car park was new. He said that if a car park under-performed the council would have to come up with suggestions to improve it.

"The residents' car park could be a very good idea," he said.