While temperatures are expected to stay relatively mild for the rest of the week, the jagged holes puncturing roads around the district are a stark reminder of the damage caused by recent severe weather.

Roads become gradually weakened by the freeze-and-thaw cycle, leading to the ugly potholes that can damage vehicles. Costly repair work puts a strain on public funds.

Last year was the worst for pothole repairs in the Bradford district, and the long-term damage could last for years.

This month, road-users – who include cyclists and bus passengers as well as motorists – were warned that the deterioration in the condition of many roads due to severe winter weather could be even worse than last year as roads thaw out.

And, with a tight local authority budget, there’s a question mark hanging over the scale of repairwork that can be carried out. Along with pothole-ridden roads comes a double increase in the price of running a vehicle, with the 0.76p-per-litre rise in fuel duty and 20 per cent VAT rate brought in last week.

As Neil Greig, director of policy and research at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said, drivers will be “rightly incensed” that cutbacks on road spending are taking place while they’re having to fork out more cash just to stay mobile.

With the Government raising more than £25 billion in fuel tax and £13 billion in VAT from road-users, the institute wants some of the new duties and taxes to be earmarked for road repairs and road safety measures.

During last winter’s heavy snowfall and big freeze – the worst for 30 years – the AA suggested that diverting nearly 2p a litre from the VAT windfall generated by rising petrol prices into a ‘pothole fund’ would enable the country’s highways holes to be filled in in 100 days, easing the strain for cash-strapped local authorities. “That would be a fantastic result, but it’s outside my remit. Maybe that’s something you should put to Mr Cameron,” says Bradford Council’s acting highways manager Chris Leach.

Last month, Bradford Council completed repairs to roads badly damaged during last winter’s severe weather. An extra £300,000 was provided from the Council’s budget, adding to £480,000 from the Department of Transport towards repairing potholes and roads.

Despite the cold snap before Christmas, the Council says the weather so far hasn’t had a significant impact on roads, but all that could change depending on any snowfall or sub-zero temperatures heading our way over coming months. Mr Leach says repairs and maintenance will depend on funds available. With 1,200 miles of roads in the district, looking after them is an expensive business.

“We had a difficult start to this winter, and with the weather we’ve been having, we’re expecting to have to deal with an increase in potholes,” he says. “With the current pressures on local government, it’s not clear whether we’re going to get extra funding.

“The overall condition of the road network is going to be more difficult to maintain if our available funds dwindle.

“If we have more snow and ice, the combination of freeze and thaw will have a more detrimental effect on the network. Our job is to keep that to a minimum within the resources we have.”

Potholes are formed when freezing temperatures cause strains on road surfaces. The tarmac covering roads becomes more porous as it ages, allowing water to enter the surface. Over time, traffic levels cause cracks which also fill up with water.

During winter, the water freezes and expands as it turns to ice, pushing the tarmac upwards and outwards.

When the ice thaws and turns back into water, it creates gaps in the road surface where the ice was, which get bigger with each freeze-and-thaw cycle, weakening the road. Traffic causes the voids to cave in, creating potholes.

Potholes are a particular menace at night, especially on darker side roads, as drivers can be unaware of them until the damage to their wheels is done.

When the thaw came, following the big freeze of early 2010, complaints to the Council about potholes and other damage on roads trebled.

It’s not just the roads that suffer – the weather pushed up insurance claims for pothole damage by more than 250 per cent, and injuries caused by road accidents added to NHS costs.