Statement: A town's water board has told its consumers that the meter readings taken by its own readers cannot be relied on, several readers having been found entering figures without going near the house. On the strength of those very readings the board has now raised a demand on 3,000 consumers for the arrears of three years. Which of the following courses of action follows from the statement?

The board is asking consumers to pay on the strength of a record it has publicly disowned, and it cannot have the readings worthless for one purpose and good enough for another. What follows is to suspend the demand until the meters have been read by a means the board is prepared to stand behind, after which whatever arrears are genuine can be recovered. Pressing the demand keeps the discredited figures in force and the objection unanswered. Recovering the arrears from the readers punishes them for water the consumers drank and leaves the true consumption still unknown. And raising the rate is an answer to a shortfall of revenue, not to a record the board itself says is false.