North Ryde. Uni luring multinationals

Macquarie University is one institution luring multinational companies on to campus to beef up a new generation of research and technology parks, creating jobs, work for students and big opportunities for local businesses, said The Australian Financial Review. Cochlear is moving into a $130 million precinct, custom built by Macquarie to link researchers, health-care enterprises and non-profit organisations. The project will, in turn, form part of a $1.7 billion campus redevelopment approved by the NSW Government in September.

Blacktown. New name for tech college

The Australian Technical College Western Sydney, at Kings Park, will become a part of the Sydney Anglican Schools Corporation, from January 2010, and will be known as Anglican Technical College Western Sydney, or Angli-Tech. The college will relocate to Glenwood in late 2010. The college will expand its trade training to offer business services and information technology on site as well as the traditional skills shortage.

Bankstown. 'Super screen' in shopping centre

Val Morgan Retail Media has set up a four-metre wide “super screen” in Centro Bankstown, the first of 30 digital TV screens in shopping centres. By March 2010, the remaining screens, plus 40 new standard screens, will be installed in other shopping centres. “We think digital screens in shopping centres deliver value and impact” (to advertisers), said Graeme Yarwood, Val Morgan CEO, in The Australian Financial Review.

Penrith. Protecting local food production

The Penrith local government area has 124 vegetable farms, about 11.8 per cent of Sydney's identified vegetable farms, the same amount as the Hawkesbury. Both were behind Liverpool, which contained 35 per cent of Sydney's vegetable farms. A Penrith City Council spokesman said, in the Penrith Star, the council wanted to protect local food production so “the benefits of fresh food and a sustainable local economy are here for generations to come''.

Parramatta. Half-hour services could resume

Railways Clearways, the joint Transport Infrastructure Development Corporation and RailCorp, program, aims to restore the half hourly frequency on the Cumberland Line by 2010, according to Parramatta City Council’s draft Parramatta City Centre Integrated Transport Plan. Trains on the line, from Liverpool to Blacktown, via Parramatta, which opened in 1996, have been dramatically reduced from 30-minute services throughout the day to two northbound services in the AM peak and three in the PM peak. The public exhibition of the draft transport plan is on display until December 1.

Parramatta. Restaurant lodges a DA

Inside Outside Restaurant, in the Octagon building, in the Parramatta CBD, has lodged a DA with Parramatta City Council, to increase hours of operation, Monday to Saturdays, from 8.00am to 2.00am, and to increase in number of staff to accommodate the use of the premises for the sale of alcohol without consuming a meal.