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Dismissed mayors and councillors seized control of a Sydney council chamber after hundreds of protesters forced the meeting to be shut down. The first meeting of the newly created Inner West Council descended into chaos on Tuesday night, with riot police called to the scene as protesters shouted "out", spat at and jostled council workers. The appointed head of the new council, formed from the amalgamation of Leichhardt, Ashfield and Marrickville, was unable to get through the Acknowledgment of Country ceremony as protesters booed and waved placards in his face. Administrator Richard Pearson was forced to stop the meeting, and was escorted from the chamber by police as one woman spat at him and another man repeatedly grabbed his council documents and iPad and threw them away from him. The former mayors and councillors from the three sacked councils then grabbed the microphone, with declarations made that the inner west would be "ungovernable" and "unworkable" until Premier Mike Baird reinstated them. Greens state MPs were also in the chamber and member for Balmain Jamie Parker addressed the crowd. When Mr Pearson tried to contact the former councillors to find a way to continue the meeting, outgoing Leichhardt mayor Darcy Byrne told the crowd: "we will be able to come to the negotiating table when democracy is put on the table". Leichhardt, Ashfield and Marrickville were amalgamated to form the new Inner West Council on May 12, as part of the Baird government's bid to have fewer councils covering larger populations. Administrators were appointed to run the 19 new councils until local government elections are held in September, 2017. But Mr Pearson has been dogged by claims that he is a puppet of the government, put in place to allow for the smooth construction of the WestConnex motorway project. The 33-km motorway project is a highly controversial issue in the inner west, although councils themselves have no decision making power over it and two out of the three stages have already been approved by the government. But opponents have seized on the fact that Mr Pearson had a senior position in the Department of Planning and Environment, even though he says he ended that job in 2014 and had no role in the assessment of any parts of WestConnex. Shortly before the meeting, Mr Pearson told the Herald that he would continue to voice the community's opposition to the project and was offended by claims that he would not advocate on their behalf. "That does insult my integrity because you know I'm certainly not anybody's puppet," said Mr Pearson, who lives in Summer Hill. "I am here to represent the views of the community. The views of the community in the inner west in relation to WestConnex are firstly opposition to the project and it's secondly attempting to get a better deal with the state government with how the project rolls out." The first meeting of the Inner West Council was due to include a vote on the establishment of an implementation advisory group and local representation committee, which would be made up of paid former councillors and mayors. Extra police were called to the chambers, with the sacked councillors and mayors telling the crowd they had to remain in the building for at least half an hour to ensure there was no chance the meeting could be resumed. Experienced council staff said that they had never seen such scenes in the chamber, even during the heated protests against constructing a third runway at Sydney Airport.

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