Sydney radio host Garry Linnell's comments followed an evening of high tension over the future of the beach's historic Bondi Pavilion, as death threats, verbal abuse and a few famous faces entered the fray at a local council meeting on Tuesday night.

Linnell unleashed a character-assassinating rant on the beach side suburb, calling it "one of the ugliest eyesores in this country" and labelling its residents "tossers" on his 2UE breakfast show on Wednesday morning.

"It's the most overrated suburbs in Sydney and actually it's starting to look like a ghetto around there, particularly around the beach," Linnell said on air.

Linnell doubled-down saying it was a "very ugly suburb" and "haphazard conglomeration of crappy looking buildings, tight streets, appalling traffic and a grungy, dirty beachfront which just needs a complete hosing down."

Waverley Council voted 7-5 to proceed with a proposed $38 million makeover of the Pavilion, which includes a redeveloped entrance and atrium, a new theatre and space for cafes and restaurants.

Plans for the revamp were released in December, with Waverley mayor Sally Betts saying at the time, "we absolutely love Bondi Pavilion, but know the grand old lady needs a lot of love and work to restore her to her former beauty".

However, Cr Betts and others who voted in favour of the proposal were hurled with abuse by more than 100 opponents who flooded the council meeting on Tuesday night.

In a secret recording of the heated meeting, uploaded to the Save Bondi Pavilion Facebook page, those in the gallery yelled out "shame", "you're not listening" and "it's not your pavilion". The Wentworth Courier also reported people screaming "we're not living in Sally-bekistan".

Cr Betts threatened to call the police and have disruptive people removed, met by howls of laughter.

After the meeting, she told the ABC she had received death threats over the proposal.

A development application has not been released or approved yet and the vote on Tuesday night was for approval of initial plans that have no confirmed start date or funding supply.

Waverley Council has been contacted for comment on whether $24 million has been secured, to add to the $14 million the council is promising to contribute.

In December, council said it hoped to secure the remaining funding through state and federal grants including a $1 million heritage grant from the federal government.

The Castle actor Michael Caton attended Tuesday's meeting and has been a vocal opponent of the revamp along with Hoodoo Gurus frontman David Faulkner and singer Ben Lee, who recorded his first album in the pavilion's recording facilities.

The design, by heritage architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, boasts a new 200-seat theatre, expanded community areas, and changes to the building's first floor to allow for a cafe or restaurant overlooking the beach.

The main concerns raised by opponents are that the revamp would lead to increased commercialisation of the pavilion, loss of community facilities and the loss of the recording studio.

"Who benefits from the existing plan demolishing the theatre and creating a restaurant/cafe/meeting space?" resident and theatre producer Di Smith told the meeting. "Restauranteurs and tourists. Not the community, not our cultural soul."

Councillors who opposed the plan also spoke about the lack of information and the unresolved funding issues.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said the meeting "did nothing to ease our concerns about Bondi Pavilion being commercialised or privatised by stealth".