Not just local councils. Being a little parochial, anyone remember the Boscombe Down ATC fiasco in 1990?
Let me refresh.
Organisation A lost the contract and was given x months notice. Company B won the contract and part of the deal was that organisation A would train company B's controllers. Three days or so before handover, everyone threw their hands in the air and said "too difficult" (I wonder why
). Anyway, a bit of frantic HQ MATO activity later, a motley bunch of RAF controllers get sent in over the weekend. 18 years later they are still there under a so-called "Value For Money" role.