Cops waste £22k-a-year on dud water cannon thanks to former London Mayor Boris Johnson
The 25-year-old Wasserwerfer 9000 was brought from the German police but cannot be used on streets of the capital
Cops waste a PC’s starting salary every year servicing Boris Johnson’s water cannon that will never be used, The Sun can reveal.
The Metropolitan Police admitted last night that they spend £21,866 annually maintaining and storing three second-hand riot control water cannon, bought in a botched £328,000 deal.
That’s almost of the cost of a Police Constable’s starting salary of £22,668 — and they’ve been in locked up since 2014.
The £22,668 figure released by the Met yesterday is higher than previous costs stated for maintaining the mothballed motors.
It is understood that £4,818 is also spent every year insuring the three water cannon.
The former Mayor purchased the 25-year-old Wasserwerfer 9000 from the German police before Theresa May blocked their use on the streets of London.
Since then they have been sitting in storage — believed to be at a Met training facility in Gravesend, Kent — but have to be serviced constantly with the taxpayer footing the bill.
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In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Met said yesterday: “The 3 MPS water cannon are stored on MPS premises, therefore there are no additional storage costs.”
Adding: “The current annual standard servicing charge for water canon is £7288.68 per annum per vehicle.”
Before appointing him Foreign Secretary, the new PM Mrs May teased Boris about the bad buy, suggesting it rendered him unfit to negotiate in Britain’s best interests.
Boris bought the riot control weapons from the Federal German police in June 2014, however a year later Mrs May blocked their use on the UK mainland in a stunning slap down from the then Home Secretary and rival.
“What I’m going to do is sell them and use the money for youth services,” he claimed.
He added: “We’re paying for storage facilities for these water cannon. That beggars belief.”