Newington. $10 million Smart Village

Around 1000 properties in Newington and nearby Silverwater, are being fitted with technology allowing their owners to control air conditioning units, heaters and other devices via iPhones or other mobiles with internet access. So far around 400 homes have been fitted with the technology and a further 600 homes will be installed by December, NSW Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, John Robertson, told AAP. Newington was chosen because properties are relatively new and a high proportion already has environmentally friendly items such as solar panels. Silverwater was chosen because it has a higher proportion of older homes, enabling researchers to trial the technology in a range of properties. The so-called Smart Village, which has cost $10 million, will be monitored for two years and the results used to persuade energy firms and politicians to adopt the technology.

Sydney Olympic Park. Apartments take off

About 60 per cent of the first stage, of 216 apartments, of the $320 million, 685 apartment Australia Towers complex – the first residential project under construction in Sydney Olympic Park – has been sold or had a deposit taken. Apartments range from $450,000 to $1.4 million for a penthouse.

Region. Growth frustrated in the West

Sydney in general, and Western Sydney in particular, have become places where innovation, entrepreneurship and hard work are frustrated by choked roads, inadequate or unavailable public transport, freight that can't be moved efficiently or on time, poorly drained employment lands that lack IT infrastructure There is an alarming lack of suitably configured large-scale employment sites. Also, there is a lack of imagination in the ways that small enterprises and home-based enterprises can be integrated into everyday economy life, according to Professor Bill Randolph, from the UNSW Faculty of the Built Environment and Sharon Fingland, the assistant director, of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) in a meeting with Tom Gellibrand, the new deputy director, planmaking and urban renewal, in the Department of Planning.

Parramatta. Call for executive officer

Regional Dvelopment Australia (RDA) – a jojnt initiative of the Australian and NSW governments – has called for the position of executive officer, of RDA Sydney, at a salary in excess of $100,000. RDA-Sydney, currently based in Parramatta, was formed following the amalgamation of the Western Sydney Economic Development Board (GWSEDB) and GROW Sydney Area Consultative Committee, on July 1. Applications close on November 4. The chairman of RDA Sydney is Alan Pendleton, former chairman of the GWSEDB.

Parramatta. Judicial appointments

Federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, has called for nominations and expressions of interest for appointment to the Family Court of Australia, in Parramatta, and to the Federal Magistrates Court, also in Parramatta.