Few can remember how long improvements to the A27 have been discussed. Bottlenecks at Chichester, Arundel and Worthing have become part of the daily fabric of West Sussex travel and, despite business suffering from our clogged-up roads, little progress has been made.

West Sussex County Councillor Tex Pemberton, Cabinet member for highways and transport, has been doing his job for 12 years and said the debates were raging long before he arrived. Is there now finally an end in sight? Claire Truscott reports.

A car crash anywhere along the A27 is county-wide news, such is the disruption caused to all road users commuting along the main highway joining the Sussex towns.

Worthing and Arundel are two busy conurbations with huge traffic flows between and within the towns.

But neither has a satisfactory bypass road and drivers going into the towns must jostle for position with those attempting to whizz past them.

Chichester has a ring-road which in theory could divert traffic headed towards Portsmouth and Brighton away from those going into the cathedral city.

But instead, the design of the roundabouts means they must sit together churning out fumes and frustration.

The road is operated by the Highways Agency, which is working in partnership with West Sussex County Council to get the route sorted once and for all.

A working group was set up by the county council to discuss improvements and is due to report back next month.

But The Argus exclusively revealed yesterday a bypass for Worthing will be ruled out by the group in favour of lane-widening and flyovers, which Worthing Borough Council leader Keith Mercer denounced as "tinkering".

Lieutenant Colonel Pemberton said: "The bypass would be an absolute solution and take traffic away from Worthing but we are all agreed Worthing is extremely difficult. I would not say a bypass is ruled out but I suspect it is not an achievable solution."

By the end of next year he wants to have recommendations for Worthing to take to the Regional Transport Board, which decides which schemes are prioritised for funding, so it can look at the cost and feasibility and acceptability of various options.

Discussion has been couched in terms such as "feasibility" and "recommendations" as far back as today's councillors can remember, yet the status quo along the A27 has not shifted.

Councillor Pemberton said the time lags were a bore.

He said: "I have been in council for 12 years and when I came in this had been discussed for many years already. It's too long.

"I share the frustration of how long it takes. We were moving forward in the process when this Government made changes to the procedure and introduced the Regional Transport Board and we have all had to go back into the pot.

"Now we in the South East are competing against each other to be the funding priority as the Government says we must fund it locally."

Sussex lost out to Surrey in the first round of funding and the A3 at Hindhead was prioritised, its tunnel costing £371 million to build - equivalent to two years of regional funding.

Coun Pemberton said: "If the A3 costs more then our whole programme gets knocked back.

That's the sort of battle royale I have.

"A tunnel at Worthing could cost half-a-billion pounds and I think that might be more than the regional funding allocation would be able to meet in a five-year funding tranche."

But it's not all doom and gloom - there may be a light and there may yet be a tunnel.

Coun Pemberton received a letter, dated April 28, from Dr Stephen Ladyman, minister of state for transport, which said he was happy to accept the recommendations of the Regional Transport Board to look at improving the Chichester bypass in the period 2011 to 2016.

The improvements would include flyovers or flyunders to split the traffic crossing the A27 from that travelling along it.

Arundel is now on the agenda for the following funding period, 2016-21, and Coun Pemberton said consultation with residents would take place soon.

He said: "We would like an off-line bypass which means building a new road. I think that's what the people of Arundel want, whether or not the Highways Agency think that's achievable.

"Even if the green light was switched now, the Highways Agency said it would not be ready to get going until 2015 and if something else slips from the South East investment programme, it could be earlier.

"I'm a positive thinker and I'm extremely hopeful now we have the support of Seera and Seeda, which I understand are not only very happy to support the A27 but have indicated they may fund some of the consultative process."

Conservationists may yet thwart the plans.

Simon Wild, who runs West Sussex Wildlife Protection, said there are two options for an Arundel bypass - one which goes through a forest and one which skirts around it but is closer to people's homes.

He said: "There's quite a lot of badger activity in that woodland and building through it would cause significant problems.

"But I can see both sides of the story. We are principally concerned with damage to flora and fauna and if that can be avoided there could be a case for bypasses.

"If we were to support a bypass there would have to be better fencing. At the moment the A27 is a killing ground."

But there are plenty of people who do not share Mr Wild's pragmatic approach and will be against any road-building plans, whatever the economic arguments.

The loss of green spaces of any type is enough to get them out with placards, and possibly spur more direct action.

Coun Pemberton said: "What the conservationists sometimes miss is that if we don't do that then what's happening at the moment is that traffic is leaving the A27 and using the area of outstanding natural beauty as a rat-run, through our villages north and south of the A27. If we can stop that we will improve the impact on the environment."

By 2008 he wants to have the final slice of the pie in place - a plan for Worthing which is acceptable to the Regional Transport Board and eventual approval by the Government.

There will be a few more years of traffic queues but Coun Pemberton hopes it will all be worth the wait.