Transport Secretary Alistair Darling has been challenged to endure the traffic misery of the main arterial route through Sussex after years of delays to improvements.

County MPs lined up in the Commons to harangue the Government last night over its continued failure to tackle chronic congestion on the A27.

They called on Mr Darling to visit Sussex to witness the scale of the problem and apologise for the delays.

But Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman, speaking on Mr Darling's behalf, maintained the Government had nothing to apologise for.

Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said: "The A27 is one of the most congested roads in Sussex, particularly around Worthing.

"For 30 years constituents have been holding out the hope of some bypass, since then the traffic has got worse. Business investment is now threatened.

"And yet the minister now talks about small-scale responses which are a few traffic lights and some trees."

Mr Loughton added that the congestion had been made worse by the extra homes in the countryside demanded by John Prescott.

West Worthing MP Peter Bottomley doubted that there would be an end to "the death, the discomfort and the delays" within 20 years.

He added: "Why doesn't he accept the invitation, experience what local residents have to put up with and apologise for the delays of the last eight years that have got us nowhere?"

Dr Ladyman said: "We have nothing to apologise for - we are taking a perfectly rational process to try and come up with sustainable alternatives to schemes that were quite simply unaffordable and destroyed areas of natural beauty."

The minister said that a package of traffic management measures was being drawn up. He understood the frustration of local people.