Local Economy
Historically, employment was commonly connected to the railway and the canal. In the modern day, West Drayton tends to be more of a commuter town, owing to its proximity to the M25, M4, M40 and M3 motorways, Heathrow Airport and Stockley Business Park.
A new shopping complex is soon to be built in the town centre. An Ofcom-licensed community radio station, 91.8 Hayes FM, serves the area, as does the commercial station Time 106.6. The European broadcaster Viasat also has its studios and playout centre here.
Guoman Hotel Management (UK) Limited has its head office in the Thistle London Heathrow in West Drayton.
The Stockley Close Industrial Estate includes a British Midland International office. In July 1999 Sir Michael Bishop formally opened the British Midland Training Centre at Stockley Close. Other tenants in the estate include Almirall, BP, British Airways, HP Enterprise Services (originally Electronic Data Systems, or EDS), and Marks & Spencer. Waterside, the head office of British Airways, is in Harmondsworth, near West Drayton.
Read more about this topic: West Drayton
Famous quotes containing the words local and/or economy:
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“Wise men read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior. The whole economy of nature is bent on expression. The tell-tale body is all tongues. Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces which expose the whole movement.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)