Has your drive to work suddenly become more bumpy? Does the road outside your house look as cratered as the Moon?

Potholes are an irritation and a potentially costly problem for most drivers – so we asked readers to contact us when they spotted damage caused by one of the coldest winters on record.

The big freeze has led to a noticeable increase in cavernous cracks, leaving Hounslow and Richmond councils with a whopping bill for repairs.

Meanwhile, the unfixed holes have been getting deeper and wider, posing a risk to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.

Jenny Butterfield, of Waldeck Road, Chiswick, had an uncomfortable ride as she drove to meet friends for dinner and decided to alert us to “horrendous” damage on the flyover at the Hogarth roundabout.

She said: “It’s unbelievable. I went over it last night for the first time and it’s just every three or four yards, they are about two inches deep. It’s incredible.

“It’s always pretty bumpy going over there but it’s almost undriveable, and because it’s such a main road I’m amazed they haven’t done anything with it yet.”

David Stoch, from Hammersmith, added: “Having grown up in Africa I can confirm it’s one of the worst stretches of road I have ever experienced.”

Brenda Moore, of West Moreland Road, Barnes, told us about the potholes that have appeared outside her house, which she said had not been there before the new year.

She said: “There are about four or five.

“They’ve become more visible and are getting deeper because we are all going in them, they are in the middle of the road and are maybe about a foot across – about a tyre-width across.

“We avoid them if we can, it’s not the whole road. I guess you could zig-zag.

“They can get worse if we are all driving over them, they are just going to get deeper. We just have to join the queue to get them fixed.”

John Previte said he had tried to contact Richmond Council about damage to Hampton Court Road, but had struggled to submit his complaint because of an error with the online form.

He said cracks and joins left from roadworks three years ago had opened up in about 10 different areas.

He said: “The road is in a very bad condition there.

“They are quite large potholes, they are growing the whole time.”

So what have the councils been doing to fill in our streets?

The team in Hounslow was this week busy assessing approximately 350 potholes reported since the new year. It has already repaired about 210, and faces a £350,000 bill as a result of the severe weather in January.

Compare those figures to the average of 910 potholes reported annually in the borough, it’s easy to see the huge dent the cold snap will create in the council budget.

The authority stressed, however, that some roads, including the Chiswick flyover, were not its responsibility, and the Highways Agency would also be carrying out repairs.

Hounslow Council has also won £267m extra funding from the Government to transform the borough’s 763km of pavements and 432km of streets into “some of the best in the country”, although it will take many years to complete the work.

Richmond Council said it had already identified about 1,000 potholes this year, double its annual average, ranging from small pieces of road that have chipped away, to larger hazardous cracks.

Impressively, the authority’s road works team has already filled in 95 per cent, or about 22 a day, since the new year, although the total cost of this has not yet been calculated.

Councillor David Trigg, cabinet member for traffic, transport and parking at Richmond Council, said: “To help deal with the extra costs associated with the severe winter weather, the council has initially increased the highways budget by £100,000. The work is ongoing and we have dealt with a large number of potholes.

“Along with the Local Government Association, we are calling upon the Government to give Richmond, and other councils, adequate funding to ensure we can reinstate our roads to a generally accepted standard.

“We have been supplying grit to other councils and we are looking to restock to our previous full capacity as soon as possible. While the council has taken steps to help address the damage caused by the weather, I believe the Government should help us, and other authorities, to make up the financial shortfall.”