The urban district council had responsibility for many local interests, including fire service and medical provision, that are now the remit of regional or national agencies.

In 1863 a separate local board was established to provide equivalent services and regulation for the surrounding remainder of the township of Bingley.

[10] By 1955, the BUDC was responsible for Bingley, Cottingley, Cullingworth, Eldwick, Flappitt, Gilstead, Harden, Low Springs, Ryecroft and Wilsden.

This required its own Act of 1901, and the removal of interred bodies from the site, whilst the headstones were used to line the paths around the graveyard.

[17] BUDC invoked several bye-laws relating to public health in the district, and these covered slaughterhouses, markets, the cemetery, smoke abatement, recreation grounds, suppression of litter and even the sale of contraceptives in automated machines.

[19] In February 1914, the BUDC enabled the Bradford tram system to be extended into Bingley from Nab Wood (Saltaire).

However, some commented that the novel painted Bradford (and the wider area) as a "seedy, immoral place", and the BUDC criticised the library in Bingley for buying six copies of the novel.