If I've learned anything in all my many, many years on this planet it is that the 'authorities' cannot be relied upon to do anything right - often their priorities are so weird and skewed that they end up doing things that appear completely mad. They also act according to a widespread (and probably erroneous) view that the more money there is involved, the more complicated and tortuous the course of action has to be.
They also just love the exercise of raw power. Remember the foot-and-mouth outbreak, in the UK, of a couple of years ago? Remember the relish with which they slaughtered thousands of animals? - probably unecessarily, as it turned out.