Councillors were met by a hostile crowd of hundreds of residents who booed when the special rate variation (SRV) was passed to help pay for the $122 million redevelopment of North Sydney Pool.

Councillor James Spenceley was one of three councillors to vote against the increase, and he told Today that the council went against residents' wishes in the community consultation survey.

"We, as a council went out to community consultation, and 95 per cent of residents said they didn't want such an extreme rate rise," Spenceley said.

"And then council ignored them and just proceeded. So, as you can imagine, tension was high."