I now live in a purely ceremonial county now that Bedfordshire County Council no longer exists. I can’t say I’m particularly sad to see it go as the good services seemed to come from Mid Bedfordshire District Council and the less impressive services from the County Council, although this is something of a gross generalization. I also think the extra layer of local government was helping no-one. Waste, for instance, was collected by Mid Beds but disposed of by the County. I don’t really care as long as it is collected (and recycled and everything of course) by someone. I would be happy if it were central government if it worked. Considering the strong control that central government puts on local government anyway (not necessarily a bad thing in many ways), maybe this is an idea.
Anyway, Sandy is now in Central Bedfordshire (official site), which is basically the more rural bits of Bedfordshire without the buzzing metropoles of Bedford and Luton. It does include Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard, however, which by Mid Beds standards, do count as sizable towns.