Behind every parking meter, library catalogue and bin-collection app is software. Much of it is bought, configured and then forgotten, until the supplier changes terms or disappears.
A handful of cities are treating that code as infrastructure. They require suppliers to document their systems, keep a copy of the source and name someone on the council who understands it. The work is dull and rarely announced.
Advocates say the aim is not to build everything in-house but to ensure that no essential service can be lost to a contract dispute. A city, they argue, should be able to keep its own lights on.
The costs are modest and mostly administrative. A requirement to escrow source code adds a few per cent to a contract; a named internal owner adds a salary line. Against that, officials point to a recent case in which a supplier’s bankruptcy left a neighbouring council unable to take bookings for six weeks.
