Taxpayers may have to pick up bill for the big freeze

The news comes after North Yorkshire County Council sparked fury by proposing a 2.94 per cent rise in council tax rates for 2010 after going 14m over budget on this year's winter repair bill. Now other councils across Yorkshire have admitted being millions of pounds over winter maintenance budgets on gritting and road repairs.

While some have pledged to pay for it by dipping into reserves, others, including Bradford, Kirklees and City of York Council, have not ruled out the possibility of council tax increases to help meet the cost.

Paul Kent, 58, of Grassington, near Skipton, who was forced to close his family furniture business for a week due to last month's snow, said: "This is just utterly unbelievable. When it snowed the whole area ground to a halt, and when we needed the road clearing, they couldn't even do that. I just wonder what we are paying all this money for."

The extra cost for councils has come from stockpiling grit, paying staff to work extra shifts, and fixing potholes in major roads caused through repeated freezing and thawing.

North Yorkshire has said the cost of repairing the potholes will stretch to 10m and has asked its executive to approve a 1m fund from the council's reserves alongside the tax increase to begin repair work.

The proposals will be considered by the council's executive today and by the full county council on February 17.

NYCC leader John Weighell (Con, Bedale) said it had been a priority to balance increasing demands for services with the need to keep council tax as low as possible "but the damage caused to the county's highways by the most extreme weather conditions for 30 years will cost several million pounds to repair.

"We have taken what is prudent from our reserves to help to pay for this work, but there is still a shortfall which must be covered through tax."

The Local Government Association wants the Department of Transport to release 100m nationwide for repairs.