by Alan Watkins

awatkins@thekmgroup.co.uk

The Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions has been to Gillingham to find out how a charity is simply doing jobs the civil service ties up in red tape.
Theresa May visited the Sunlight Centre in Richmond Road to talk to officials about the way the charity is doing so much in the community.
She was shown around the former industrial laundry by the chairman of trustees, Tony Crowcroft, and Peter Holbrook, its chief executive, who was just back from breakfast with the Prime Minister at No. 10.
Mrs May said: "I want to see what is working at grass roots level, and to support charities and voluntary effort."
The centre has helped 1,500 local families, trained residents in various jobs - notably catering where it is about to open a business in London - provided medical and social care, leisure pursuits, helped new mums with breast feeding, and found homes for homeless people.
Accompanied by the Gillingham and Rainham Conservative candidate at the next General Election, Cllr Reh Chishti, Mrs May said that charities played a significant role in the community.
After their tour of the Sunlight Centre, Mrs May met shoppers in Gillingham High Street before travelling to a women's refuge on Sheppey.