Councillors in Sydney’s inner west have been cheered and booed as they narrowly backed a controversial proposal to rezone a swath of established suburbs to make room for up to 31,000 extra homes over 15 years.

The Inner West Council, led by Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne, voted 8-7 to endorse its Fairer Future plan to increase housing density, but not before they adopted changes to boost the capacity for social and affordable dwellings.

Amid heightened debate about more intensive development across Sydney, members of the public gallery chanted “scrap the plan” at an extraordinary hours-long meeting to debate the proposal on Tuesday night.

But Byrne urged councillors to adopt the plan, stating the shortage of affordable homes confronting the community was “so deep, and so immediate, that now’s

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