The ice has melted to reveal a road network scarred by potholes, cracks and collapsed kerbs — leaving Fife Council with a hefty repair bill.

George Miezitis, the local authority's team leader for road services north, said reports of damage to roads in north Fife were up 50 per cent on a normal January.

He said: "At the moment we're receiving around one-and-a-half times as many reports as the average January, which in any case is usually twice as bad as the summer months.

"We've been putting out extra squads to carry out repairs on the roads and we'll be sitting down on Friday to reassess the situation.

"Hopefully by the end of next week we'll have some projections with regard to costs."

Dr Bob McLellan, the council's head of transportation services, said that early estimates were putting the Kingdom's total winter maintenance costs at between £4.5m and £5m — twice the annual budget.

However, it's not just the council which has been left out of pocket by the big freeze.

Motorists are counting the cost too, with a number of the area's garages witnessing an increase in customers reporting pothole related problems.

Brian Laurie of BK's Tyres & Exhausts in East Burnside, Cupar, said he would normally see only two cars damaged by potholes in the space of a year — but he had already seen six since the beginning of 2010.

"There's been a huge increase in the number of vehicles needing new tyres and wheels as a result of pothole damage," he said.

"Most modern cars are manufactured with alloy wheels, which can be quite costly to replace."

Gary Daly, director of the Daly EMS garage on Cupar's Prestonhall Industrial Estate, said: "I've had a couple of customers whose wheels have been damaged quite badly by potholes.

"We've also been doing a lot more road springs recently, although that's a trend we noticed throughout last year as well."