Six weeks after the inaugural meeting of the Inner West Council was shut down by hundreds of angry protesters, proceedings were comparatively civil at the second attempt at Ashfield Chambers on Tuesday night.

The meeting was by no means restrained, however, as the animosity of inner west residents towards the new council, and its newly appointed administrator Richard Pearson, boiled over throughout the night.

The already frayed relationship was tested from the outset of the meeting, with residents told they had to register to attend the meeting before they were permitted entry into the chambers. The registration process, aided by slow-moving elevators, forced security guards to keep some attendees queuing in the cold as the ground floor of the building quickly reached capacity.

More than 100 residents eventually packed the council Chambers, many of them holding up paper signs reading "democracy not dictatorship" and "stop WestConnex", as police and security kept a close eye on proceedings.