Sir (Arthur) Godfrey Taylor DL (usually known as Tag Taylor) (3 August 1925 - 31 May 2014) was a British local government leader best known for his work as Chairman of the

London Residuary Body The London Residuary Body was a body set up on 12 August 1985 to dispose of the assets of the Greater London Council (GLC) after the council's abolition in 1986. Governance The LRB was chaired throughout its existence by Sir Godfrey Taylor. In ...

which disposed of the assets of the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

after its abolition. Taylor was educated at Stockport Secondary School. He was first elected as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

councillor to Sutton and Cheam Borough Council in 1951. In 1962 he was elected an

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

, and he was elected for

Cheam Cheam () is a suburb of London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is divided into North Cheam, Cheam Village and South Cheam. Cheam Village contains the listed buildings Lumley Chapel and the 16th-century Whitehall. It is adjacent to t ...

South ward to

Sutton Borough Council Sutton London Borough Council, also known as Sutton Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Sutton in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Liberal Democrat majori ...

from the creation of the council in 1964 until 1968. He was an

of Sutton from 1968 until the abolition of the Aldermanic system in 1978. He then returned to his old ward for a final term from 1978 to 1982. Having previously served as Leader of Sutton Borough Council and Chairman of the London Boroughs Association (1968-1971), from 1978 to 1980 Taylor was Chairman of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities, ending his term with a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

.‘TAYLOR, Sir (Arthur) Godfrey’, Who's Who 2010, A & C Black, 2010; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2009 ; online edn, Nov 2009. The Conservative government appointed Taylor as Chairman of the Southern Water Authority in 1981 for a four-year term. As this term was coming to an end, he was picked to head up the London Residuary Body. His close connections with the Conservative Party were regarded with cynicism by opponents of the abolition of the GLC, which had been controlled by a left-wing Labour administration in its last five years. However, the LRB had very few powers beyond selling off and dismantling the GLC, and when he took charge he was not a prominent figure. The most controversial decision of the LRB, to sell off the GLC's offices at County Hall to a

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ese corporation rather than the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, was taken when Taylor was very little known to the public. Taylor was reappointed chairman several times. As the LRB progressively sold off assets, its work reduced and from 1 December 1992 his time commitment reduced from 5 days a week to one. He continued until the LRB had completed its work and was wound up in 1996. An academic study of its work, "''The Dismantlers''", gave general praise for the work it had done, but members of the old GLC regarded its purpose as being fundamentally destructive.Michael Hebbert, "The Dismantlers", Suntory-Toyota International Centre for Economics and Related Disciplines, 1994 (Occasional Paper 18), . Taylor became a Deputy Lieutenant of

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

in 1988, and was Chairman of the Shrievalty Association from 1995 to 1998. He served as

High Sheriff of Greater London The office of high sheriff, as the monarch's representative in a county, is over 1,000 years old, with its establishment before the Norman Conquest. The office of high sheriff remained first in precedence in each county until the reign of Edward ...

in 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Tag 1925 births 2014 deaths Conservative Party (UK) councillors 20th century in London Councillors in the London Borough of Sutton Deputy lieutenants of Greater London Leaders of local authorities of England Knights Bachelor High sheriffs of Greater London