Arts and Recreation (Julie Smith)

Arts and Recreation

Julie alongside recently planted tree on Lammas Land

Julie was Executive Councillor for Arts and Recreation on Cambridge City Council from 2006 to 2010, having previously chaired the Community Development and Leisure and then Community Services Committee, which also covered issues of arts, sport and leisure. A keen theatre- and ballet-goer, she became a Trustee of the Cambridge Arts Theatre in June 2011.

As Executive Councillor, Julie has worked hard to ensure that our parks and open spaces are maintained to the standards that everyone expects in Cambridge. It's not always easy to reconcile the expectations of residents and the realities of local government financing, but Julie has tried to work with friends' groups and officers to ensure that we continue to have outstanding open green spaces.

Trees also feature heavily in the Arts and Recreation portfolio and Julie has been working to ensure a far more sensitive approach to tree management. This includes trying to minimise tree felling and ensuring that where is it essential to cut down a diseased tree there is a commitment to re-planting.

Julie was instrumental in ensuring that residents of Thorpe Way got a MUGA (multi-use games area). When she met residents and officers to discuss children's play equipment she asked about proposals for a MUGA and, finding there were none, got that put onto the agenda - it's now in place and very successful.

At the 2009 Varsity match

Sport is really important for physical health and mental well-being quite aside from the sheer enjoyment it gives many or the excellence achieved by some. Julie is very keen that Cambridge should have the very best facilities, for City and University sports. As Executive Councillor, she recently launched the City Council's new Sports Strategy. As she noted in her foreword to the Strategy, following the great success of Team GB in Beijing and in the run-up to 2012 it is very timely to look at sports provision across the City, with the new Strategy intended to inspire even those who haven't traditionally got involved in sport to do so.