The Local Government Act 1894 constituted the area an urban district, and an urban district council of fifteen councillors replaced the local board.

The borough council consisted of a mayor, six aldermen and twenty-four councillors.

At the top of the shield were the arms of Middlesex County Council between an open book and a cogwheel for education and industry in the borough respectively.

[1] In 1926, the borough council granted permission for the Canadian village of Acton, Ontario to adopt a variant of its coat of arms, substituting maple leaves for the oak leaves in the original,[2] which it used until 1974.

Prior to the Second World War the borough council was controlled by the Conservative Party.