M4 corridor

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The M4 corridor is an area in the United Kingdom adjacent to the M4 motorway, which runs from London to South Wales.1 It is a major high-technology hub.23 Important cities and towns in the area include Basingstoke. Bath, Bracknell, Bristol, Cardiff, London, Maidenhead, Reading, Newbury, Newport, Slough, Swansea and Swindon. The area is served by the M4 Motorway, the Great Western Main Line, including the South Wales Main Line, and London Heathrow Airport.4 Technology companies with major operations located in the area include Citrix Systems, Dell, Huawei, Lexmark, LG, Novell, Nvidia, Panasonic, SAP and Symantec.3

Contents

England

Reading International Business Park

The eastern end of the English M4 corridor is home to a large number of technology companies, particularly in Berkshire, Swindon and the Thames Valley.5 For this reason this part of the M4 Corridor is sometimes described as England's "Silicon Valley".1 Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Reading, Bracknell and Newbury are the main towns in the Berkshire stretch of the M4.

Reading is home to many information technology and financial services businesses, including Cisco, Microsoft,6 ING Direct,7 Oracle,8 Prudential,9 Yell Group10 and Ericsson.11 Vodafone has a major corporate campus in Newbury,12 O2 plc is in Slough13 and the headquarters of Hutchison 3G UK are in Maidenhead.14

Investment has gradually spread westwards since the 1980s.15 In the west the interchange of the M4 motorway and M5 motorway at the Almondsbury Interchange near Bristol had seen considerable growth of industries by the mid 1990s,16 in adjoining areas.

Wales

The Second Severn Crossing, which carries the M4 motorway between England and Wales.
The Digital Technium at Swansea University

The major Welsh cities along the M4 corridor are Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. South Wales is an industrial heartland of the UK.17 The 1980s and 1990s saw the development of the Swansea Enterprise Park.18 The Celtic Manor Resort located adjacent to the M4 in Newport has undergone significant investment19 and successfully hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup.20 Newport has seen significant growth in the electronics industry since the late 1980s21 and is home to factories for electronics firms such as Alcatel.22 The 1990s also saw significant investment in Cardiff such as in Cardiff Gate and the Cardiff Bay area.23 One site of note on the M4 Corridor is Port Talbot Steelworks - the largest steel producer in the UK and one of the biggest steel producers in Europe.24

The opening of the Second Severn Crossing in 1996 resulted in the previous M4 and bridge, serving Chepstow, being renumbered the M48, although the area is still generally considered as falling within the M4 corridor.2526

Since the start of the 21st Century there has been evidence of more investment west of Cardiff, such as:

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Rowley, Trevor (2006). The English Landscape in the Twentieth Century. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 47. ISBN 1852853883, 9781852853884 Check |isbn= value (help). Retrieved 12 March 2012. 
  2. ^ Norfolk Council economic report
  3. ^ a b "Tech Map of Britain: M4 corridor". The Telegraph. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 7 November 2010. 
  4. ^ "Britain's science corridor". The New York Times. 24 April 1983. Retrieved 7 November 2010. 
  5. ^ The Telegraph - Tech Map of Britain: M4 corridor
  6. ^ Microsoft UK Headquarters, Reading
  7. ^ ING Direct UK HQ
  8. ^ Oracle UK HQ
  9. ^ Prudential UK locations
  10. ^ Yell Group HQ
  11. ^ Ericsson UK Sites
  12. ^ BBC - Vodafone moves world HQ to London
  13. ^ Business Interiors - Flexible Working Pilot for O2 Head Office
  14. ^ Hutchison 3G office locations
  15. ^ OHRU Thames Valley to Silicon Valley and the M4 Corridor
  16. ^ Bristol Economic Assessment March 2011
  17. ^ http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/wales_and_devolution.htm History Learning Site - Wales and devlolution
  18. ^ Swansea Council - Business
  19. ^ Celtic Manor Resort - History
  20. ^ 2010 Ryder Cup - Europe
  21. ^ Newport Economic Development Strategy 2003 - 2008
  22. ^ BBC News - Workers hope as billionaire sells firm
  23. ^ BBC News - Bay investment is 'obscene' says MP
  24. ^ WAG News 2005 - Port Talbot’s new £80m Steel Caster officially opens
  25. ^ Creating Media
  26. ^ Capital Wales
  27. ^ BBC News - Neath Port Talbot council investing in Aberavon Beach
  28. ^ NPT - Baglan Energy Park
  29. ^ Metro - Amazon to create hundreds of jobs
  30. ^ a b Swansea Docks - History
  31. ^ a b CCS - Development
  32. ^ Llanelli Gate
  33. ^ a b c d Carmarthenshire Council - Strategic Sites
  34. ^ Llanelli Waterside
  35. ^ News Wales - New Wales racecourse goes flat out


Coordinates: 51°30′N 1°30′W / 51.5°N 1.5°W / 51.5; -1.5


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