Bradford transport chiefs will be handed almost half a million pounds to deal with potholes caused by the big freeze.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said Bradford would get £479,700 to help repair roads damaged by the snow, ice and recent low temperatures.

The cash came as part of an announcement in this week’s pre-election Budget.

Cold weather payments which give the most vulnerable an additional £25 to heat their homes when temperatures fall below zero degrees for seven consecutive days have been triggered five times across Bradford since November. Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said: “The Chancellor announced an extra £100 million for local authorities to repair pothole damage as a result of this winter’s severe weather. I intend to allocate this to councils as soon as possible, so that they can immediately get their maintenance staff filling potholes and making our roads as safe as possible for drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists.

“We have trebled funding to local authorities over the last ten years for road maintenance.”

The funding will allow local authorities to pay for the most urgent repairs. Each pothole costs around £78 to repair.

Ministers say councils have been working tirelessly to repair the most severely-affected roads but they face a significant and expensive task fixing thousands of smaller holes which would pose an increasing safety threat to road users.

The Government wants councils to focus on longer term resurfacing and maintenance work to avoid any more sudden deterioration in road conditions in the future.

The Institution of Civil Engineers vice-president Geoff French fears drivers will have to cope with an increasing number of potholes because of the continuous freezing and thawing of roads. Water penetrates cracks in the road surface caused by a constant flow of traffic. When the water freezes the holes expand causing existing potholes to grow and new ones to form.

The Local Government Association, which represents councils, said its members spent £60 million filling in around 970,000 potholes last year.

The Department for Transport said the cash is on top of a trebling in Government investment for road maintenance over the past decade – up from £265 million in 2000-01 to £809 million in 2010-11.