This year the Department for Transport report into the on the economic benefits of the proposed A27 improvement work at Arundel and Worthing concluded that economic benefits of up at least £850 million could be achieved.

Not everyone is so keen on the planned dual carriageway sections which pass through some of Sussex's most beautiful countryside. Chris Todd, of the South Coast Alliance for Transport and the Environment (SCATE) told the Evening Argus: “Many politicians of today have forgotten all we’ve learnt from the past. Numerous government reports have come out showing how road building doesn’t solve problems but makes them worse. Look at the M25, they’ve expanded that and it’s clogged up again.

“If you look at the issues in Worthing a lot of it is local traffic trying to get to work in and around the town that clogs up the A27. Combined with very bad planning decisions with building north of the A27 at Lyons Farm, that’s caused a lot of the problems.

“A27 expansion would be incredibly destructive and expensive and doesn’t make sense economically.”

Mr Todd said Sussex was “crying out” for cycle and rail investment instead of “bulldozing through the countryside”.  

Backing the plans, Maria Caulfield told the paper, “It’s crazy that it can take me an hour to get from one end of my constituency to another, simply because the roads are not good enough.”