poor law unions based in Bedfordshire towns were Ampthill, Bedford, Biggleswade, Leighton Buzzard, Luton, and Woburn. In addition, a handful of parishes near the boundaries of Bedfordshire were included in poor law unions based in towns in other counties, namely Hitchin in Hertfordshire, St Neots in Huntingdonshire and Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. Urban areas Bedford was the only ancient borough in the county still operating at the time of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. Dunstable was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1864 and Luton in 1876. Urban local government in Bedfordshire in this period took one of three forms: Municipal Boroughs created under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835; Local Board Districts created under the Public Health Act 1848 and governed by a local board of health; or Local Government Districts created under the Local Government Act 1858 and governed by a local board. Under the Public Health Acts of 1872 and 1875 these areas also became urban sanitary districts, with their existing council or board acting as urban sanitary authority. Rural areas Until 1872, local government in rural areas was limited to the parish vestries. As well as giving sanitary responsibilities to the urban authorities above, the Public Health Acts of 1872 and 1875 also established rural sanitary districts for the areas of each poor law union outside the urban authorities. These rural sanitary districts were administered by the existing boards of guardians for the poor law unions. 18941974 The Local Government Act 1894 replaced the system of sanitary districts with urban and rural districts, each with an elected council. The urban districts, rural districts and municipal boroughs were collectively termed county districts and formed the principal subdivisions for local government for the next eighty years. Where sanitary districts had straddled county boundaries they were split or otherwise boundaries were adjusted so that each county district was solely in one county. Some of the adjustments to boundaries took a couple of years to finalise after the 1894 act, so there were some short-lived anomalies where districts initially straddled county boundaries, but these were all resolved for Bedfordshire by 1897. 19742009 The Local Government Act 1972 replaced the system of urban and rural district councils with a two-tier system of metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and district councils. County council (principal authority) Bedfordshire Borough and district councils Bedford district (renamed North Bedfordshire Borough in 1975, changed name again to Bedford Borough in