> If a local council was a business there would be a fire in the basement one Sunday morning.
Sorry I've read this sentence a couple times and I cannot discern the meaning. Perhaps it is a British expression I do not know. Can you elaborate? Why would there be a fire in the basement? Why on one Sunday morning? Why once?
Because that's the best time to burn it down for the insurance money with minimal human cost.
My point is its not a business, it doesn't have to make money and if it was held up to the standards of a commercial enterprise you'd have no better solution then to burn it down.
This is in response to OP's idea that you need to fulfil some kind of service requirement, or even run an effective service at all.
