Parramatta. Competition to cease

John Brogden, chairman of Parramatta-based Landcom will stop selling land and housing in competiton with private developers. By the end pf the year, Landcom will merge with the Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority to become Urbangrowth NSW with a mandate and new powers.

The Hills. Award winners

Clarendon Homes, at Baulkham Hills and Landcom have won the HIA (Housing Industry Association) GreenSmart Home of the Year award for their Net Zero Emissions Display Home.

North Ryde. Vice-chancellor retires

The federal government is likely to reimpose limits on the number of student places at universities to control costs, says the outgoing vice-chancellor of Macquarie University, Steven Schwartz. who retires today after 6½ years in the job. ''You can expect that that might happen,'' Professor Schwartz said. ''Because there are very large numbers of students now, the government may find that it is quite expensive, and may start looking to put caps back on the system,” he said.

Region. Plan short-sighted

The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) has criticised the NSW government’s Transport Master Plan as short-sighted and CBD-focussed, and says it totally fails to recognise the transport needs of half the city’s population. “This plan appears to be little more than a grab bag of unfunded dreams, with no overall strategy or sense of integration with the rest of the city. I can’t believe that after two years of thinking they have come up with this,” WSROC president, Clr Alison McLaren, said.