Region. Farms will 'cripple growth'

Preserving farms on Sydney's fringe in the name of agricultural self-sufficiency will cripple the city's growth, putting extra pressure on renters and home owners, said Aaron Gadiel, chief executive officer of the Urban Taskforce a property developers' lobby group. Chairman of the NSW Farmers' Association's horticulture committee, Peter Darley, said that the city needed to retain its farms because they had a more reliable water source than those further west, especially during drought. Sydney farmers can eliminate the ''middle man'' because they are within 50 kilometres of the market, but if they moved further west, they would have to employ more people to move the produce, increasing the cost of vegetables, he said.

Parramatta. Rates rise on SME sector

Schon Condon, a principal of forensic, turnaround and insolvency practitioners, Condon Associates, in Parramatta, predicted any second or third interest rate increase would have the greatest impact on the SME sector. “The areas that will be hit first are going to be retail and hospitality and restaurants because people (consumers) will have to put increasing amounts aside to deal with housing loans and the like. That will initially come from discretionary spend. Anything in the high-end discretionary spend will be first affected,” he said in The Australian Financial Review.

Lidcombe. Hotel sold for $6.55 million

The freehold of the Lidcombe Hotel is to be purchased by Marcus Levy and his wife, Vanessa, in a deal valued at $6.55 million, according to The Australian Financial Review.

Parramatta. Call for a 'wireless city'

Parramatta City Council Lord Mayor Paul Garrard, has called for council to investigate the introduction of an “eParra Strategy” which will seek to have Parramatta established as a “wireless city”, utilising Wi-Fi technology. The proposed construction of a free wireless network in Parramatta, Liverpool , Penrith, Newcastle, Gosford, Wollongong and the Sydney CBD, by the NSW Government, in 2007, never went ahead A Department of Commerce spokesman said, at the time 15 expressions of interest were being evaluated.