The Aberdare Urban District Council was established in 1894 and covered the parish of Aberdare. Its responsibilities included public health, sanitation, roads and public works generally.
There were five wards, namely Aberaman (also known as No. 5 Ward), Blaengwawr (also known as No. 4 Ward), Gadlys (also known as No. 2 Ward), Llwydcoed (also known as No. 1 Ward), and the Town Ward (also known as No. 3 Ward). Originally, one member was elected from each ward on an annual basis, but from 1904 an additional member was granted to each ward, resulting in the election of ten members, out of a total of twenty, every three years. At the intervening election, one member continued to be elected.
In 1914, on the eve of the Great War, elections took place for an additional seven seats on the council, taking the total membership of the council to 27. No further elections were held until 1919
An election was held in April 1910. It was preceded by the 1909 election and followed by the 1911 election. The term of office of members elected at the 1907 election came to an end and those elected were to serve until 1913.
(*) denotes sitting member
An election was held in April 1911. The retiring members had been elected in 1908. There were contested elections in two of the five wards.
Three of the five wards were contested with Labour retaining two seats and the Independents one.
An election was held on 7 April 1913. In Gadlys, Thomas Lewis, recenly elected unopposed to Glamorgan County Council, lost his seat to Labour after Edmund Stonelake, who previously represeneted Blaengwawr, switched wards. Lewis's defeat was attributed not only to a feeling that he could not effectively serve as a county and district councillor but also the fact that he was estranged from many of his fellow members at Ebenezer chapel, who refused to support him.
An election was held in April 1914. The retiring members had been elected in 1908. There were contested elections in two of the five wards.
Elections for seven additional members; three in the Aberaman Ward and one in each of the other four wards, were held a few days before the outbreak of the Great War.