This kind of thing happens often, unfortunately.
See it a lot with housing developments, where a council will tell a developer they need to build X% of social or affordable housing before they'll give planning permission for them to build on their land.
Developer agrees, goes away and builds a development with fewer or no affordable homes. Council objects - by this point the properties are already built. Developer pays council to go away and shut up.
Developers know that once a process goes past a certain point the council aren't going to pull the plug and risk the time and money that has already gone into it going to waste. They've got the council over a barrel, and if anyone does kick up a fuss they can be quite easily silenced with a brown envelope or two. It's naive to think it doesn't go on, the construction industry is bent as a nine bob note.