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My friend Jim Taylor, who played a leading role in the most significant of the initiatives that prevented the ancient city of Nottingham from succumbing to economic and cultural decline, has died aged 65.
A modern tram service, the revived Lace Market district and the spruced-up Old Market Square were among the vital projects to which he, as the city council's director of development, gave life and momentum. The first tram line, so successful that it is to be joined by others, came about after he had contacted the city planners of Karlsruhe, where a similar plan had met with great success. Jim and his equivalent from the German city walked Nottingham's streets together, discussing the most suitable route and the best methods of handling the inevitable objections.
After poor health forced him to retire at the age of 49, he continued to work for the public good. He supervised the £5m restoration of the historic but grievously neglected Forest recreation ground in the heart of the city and founded the successful Invest in Nottingham Club, which made contacts among firms at home and abroad in order to encourage economic growth through inward investment.
I met Jim – James to his family, and to me – when we were both at Nottingham high school. He went on to study town planning at Trent Polytechnic before joining Nottingham's planning department in 1971. He was born a couple of decades too late to save some of the city's architectural jewels, such as Watson Fothergill's spectacular Black Boy hotel, built in the city centre in 1897 and the regular home of visiting Australian Test cricket teams, or the magnificent block of Georgian almshouses funded in 1709 by Abel Collin, a philanthropic cloth merchant, and ripped down in 1958 in order to clear space for the new Maid Marian Way, described by Pevsner as the ugliest thoroughfare in Europe.
But his tireless commitment ensured that Nottingham recognised and came to cherish what remained of its patrimony, preserving its character for future generations. It was a narrow squeak and the debt of gratitude was acknowledged last year when he received the city's public service award.
Away from work, he organised the "family pew" at Nottingham Forest's home games, and he and his older brother, George, were leading lights of our Sunday football team, Musters Crescent Athletico FC, which took its name from the address of the Taylors' family home. Such projects invariably gave rise to their own humorous mythology. He founded the Sneinton Academy of Health and Beauty, which started in 1984 as a simple keep-fit class but blossomed to incorporate a variety of recreational activities and celebrated its silver jubilee with a black-tie dinner.
He is survived by his wife, Sue, his sons, Dan, Joe and Adam, his grandsons, Harry and Jack, and his brother, George.
