Boris’s £322,000 water cannon sold off... for £11,000
THREE water cannon bought by former London mayor Boris Johnson after riots in the capital have been sold for a fraction of the £322,000 they cost.
They were purchased for £11,025 by a firm that will scrap them – a loss of more than £310,000 for taxpayers.
Mr Johnson bought the vehicles from Germany in 2014 in case of a repeat of the summer 2011 riots.
But his application to use water cannon on the British mainland for the first time was rejected by then home secretary Theresa May on health and safety grounds in July 2015. Since then, they have been in storage at Gravesend, Kent.
Sadiq Khan, the current London mayor, yesterday described the water cannon as ‘another waste of taxpayers’ money by Boris Johnson’, adding: ‘I am pleased we have managed to finally get rid of them.’
They were sold to Nottinghamshire-based Reclamations (Ollerton) Ltd, which will dismantle them and export the parts.
The 25-year-old Wasserwerfer 9000 water cannon were bought from the German federal police for £28,000 each but the overall package was £218,000. This included refurbishment costs, £32,000 on adaptations to comply with London’s Low Emission Zone, £20,000 on fitting CCTV, £3,000 on 999 sirens and £3,500 on Metropolitan Police logos.
Since then the police have spent thousands on insurance, storage and other expenses, bringing the total cost to £322,000.
Keith Prince, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, defended the purchase, saying the cannon were requested by police.
He said: ‘The mayor needs to demonstrate that he got the best price he could for these machines. It would be unacceptable if he sold them cheaply just to smear his predecessor and score political points.’