The Fed meets with Sir Roger Gale MP in Kent

The  Fed met with Sir Roger Gale MP at Sandwich Convenience Store, owned by Pritesh and Bhavna Patel, in the Sandwich and Herne Bay constituency, on Friday 3^rd July.

Mr and Mrs Patel spoke about the challenges and opportunities facing the shop, which they have owned for the last seven years. They also introduced Sir Roger to the next door gift shop Balloons R Us which they acquired in May 2026. Also in attendance was the Fed’s Political Engagement Coordinator, Douglas Oliver.

In particular, they discussed problems with parking in the popular medieval Kent town, famous as one of the historic Cinque Port towns.

The Fed previously met with Sir Roger – who has been an MP in East Kent since 1983 – in Parliament last year and has previously worked with the MP at many points over his more than four decades in politics. Sir Roger has also visited Mr Patel’s second shop, which is located in nearby Minster, which he formally opened in July 2023.

During the meeting, the Fed team discussed challenges with rising taxation including higher National Insurance Contributions as well as higher commercial costs, including energy bills necessary for refrigeration.

The Fed also discussed potential opportunities to drive footfall, such as parcel collections and collectable items linked to online Tik Tok trends, including the current Dumpling Squishy toy craze.  Mr Patel spoke about the introduction of the deposit return scheme (DRS) for recycling bottles and cans, which is due to start in October 2027. He advised that he was currently investigating options for installing a return point, potentially a reverse vending machine (RVM), so local people could return their bottles and cans for recycling, in exchange for a 20p deposit.

Sir Roger Gale said: “I would like to thank Mr and Mrs Patel for their warm welcome. It was very useful to discuss the problems facing retailers in Sandwich from rising costs, to local parking matters. The Fed is rightly concerned about the impact of National Insurance charges and Business Rates and Retail crime- I look forward to working with them on these matters.”

Pritesh Patel said: “It was great to catch up with Sir Roger and we greatly appreciated his visit and interest. It was useful to discuss business in my shop, which is always busy. However, it was good to discuss the political and economic challenges I face, along with many other independent retailers and Fed members.”