Isabel Tucker

Isabel Tucker is a freelance editor and regular visitor to Gloucester Green Market in central Oxford. In July 2022, as the pandemic was coming to an end, she became concerned about the market, which belongs to Oxford City Council. The Council has outsourced the operation of the market to a private company called LSD Promotions.

In July 2022, several traders informed Isabel that their pitch fees were being increased, which resulted in at least one trader telling her that they could struggle to pay the increased cost and might have to leave the market. After receiving this information, Isabel contacted the Council and was invited to a meeting with some councillors and Council officers. This was followed by a short meeting at the market itself, during which a councillor and a Council officer spoke to traders.

The contract between LSD Promotions and Oxford City Council was due to expire on 31 March 2023. The Council opened the new contract for tender in late 2022, which was later confirmed to be awarded to LSD Promotions. However, it was not signed immediately. As Isabel believed there had been no significant improvement in the market, she continued to express concern and began to question whether the performance of LSD Promotions was in line with the Council’s expectations as reflected in the terms of the first contract.

To learn more about the market and the nature of the contract, Isabel submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the Council. In response, Isabel was told that the contract with LSD Promotions had not been varied to reflect changes in circumstances and the council’s management of the contract had been “light touch”. The council acknowledged that it was “not ideal” that the contract was not managed “formally in accordance with its terms”. As a result, the council agreed that the contract needed to be “refreshed and reprocured”. Isabel also engaged with other local residents about the market and raised her concerns about the market through participation in a radio show on which the market was discussed, writing a news article for a local community association website (Jericho Online) and addressing a Council meeting. Following Isabel’s presentation at the Council meeting, Councillor Susan Brown, Leader and Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy and Partnerships responded, citing figures that suggested the market had grown and challenging Isabel’s claims.

On 11 March 2024, Isabel received a letter from Nath Solicitors, instructed by LSD Promotions, alleging that she was leading a “false and malicious campaign of defamation” and that her “conduct has caused our client considerable embarrassment, anxiety and distress”. The letter highlighted allegedly defamatory content made in e-mails she had sent in 2022, her article for Jericho Online, her appearance on BBC Radio Oxford, her address given at a Council meeting, her Freedom of Information requests, two e-mails to the Council asking questions about the market, and a note passed to LSD Promotions by a trader. The note had been given to three traders by Isabel and was based on their testimony that was incorporated into a confidential complaint she had made to the Council. For full transparency, she had sent the short excerpts from the complaint to her sources, and one such note was then shown to LSD Promotions.

The letter from Nath Solicitors also asserted without providing evidence that Isabel had used a pseudonym, Kiki Figgs, to post defamatory content on a local Facebook group. Isabel denied using this pseudonym. The post, authored by a local resident, quoted Isabel’s piece on Jericho Online. The legal letter asserted that LSD Promotions “has a claim in libel and in harassment” and that she has “no defence to such claim”. After Isabel responded to the first legal letter, Nath Solicitors sent a second legal threat on 23 April. Refuting her claims, the letter stated that “[i]n addition to or as an alternative to our client’s claim for defamation, our client is also considering bringing action against you for malicious falsehood”.

Both letters instructed Isabel to undertake to remove the article published by Jericho Online, remove the posts on Facebook, retract all “defamatory” statements, promise not to make any more “defamatory” statements about LSD Promotions, and refrain from sending any e-mails or communications to “third parties” repeating any of the words they had complained of.

In July 2024, Isabel was notified by a councillor that the council had communicated with LSD Promotions in relation to the legal threat. An early draft of the letter referenced the fact that the council had not approved, nor had any knowledge of the legal letters sent by LSD promotions to Isabel, as well as a request from the council to be informed ahead of any subsequent legal correspondence.

In August 2024, Isabel sent an official complaint to Oxford City Council maintaining that LSD Promotions’s threats were “intimidatory” in nature and an attempt to prevent her from criticising the market, thus infringing her right to free expression. This was referred to the Local Government Ombudsman. However, the Ombudsman’s office said it didn’t fall within their remit. On 5 September 2024, the UK Anti-SLAPP Coalition sent a letter to Councillor Susan Brown and two senior Council officers, alerting them to the threats made by LSD Promotions and the Coalition’s belief that the legal threats against Isabel bore the hallmarks of a SLAPP. Over a year later, no response has been received from the council, nor has Isabel received any subsequent communication from LSD Promotions via Nath Solicitors.