NICK Clegg insisted a government pledge of major investment in Bournemouth “can’t be reversed” during a visit to the area yesterday.

The deputy prime minister was given a tour of Arts University Bournemouth and Bournemouth University following the announcement that £12.6 million would be spent on Dorset infrastructure projects, which it is predicted will create 26,000 jobs.

The Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership has agreed an expansion to its Growth Deal with the government which will see the money invested in the county between 2016 and 2021.

Part of that is set to be spent on building a new slip road to the Wessex Way near Castle Lane East in a bid to alleviate congestion outside Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

Asked by the Daily Echo if the promise, which came 98 days before the General Election, could be scrapped in the event of a different government being elected in May, Mr Clegg said: “No it won’t be. This is an additional instalment of a process already well under way – it can’t be reversed.

“In a nutshell what we are doing is taking money that otherwise would be hoarded in Whitehall and taking pots of money that otherwise get buried away in the departments of Whitehall – and instead giving it to people who can make better use of that money, namely the local enterprise partnerships and local authorities and local decision makers. I just have an old fashioned liberal belief that if you give people the freedom, if you trust people to take the decisions for themselves for the benefit of their local communities, they will tend to do it better than the decisions taken in remote offices in Whitehall.”

As well as chatting with students about their various art projects and career plans, Mr Clegg also used the visit to give his backing to Vikki Slade, who will be standing as the Lib Dem candidate for Mid Dorset and North Poole in the forthcoming election.

Ms Slade is replacing the retiring Annette Brooke who currently holds the seat with a slim majority of 269.