BBC recipes: angry Twitter backlash over decision to remove thousands of recipes from BBC website

Thousands of people have slammed a BBC decision to remove huge numbers of recipes from their website in a cost-cutting drive.

As part of plans to save £15million from their budget, the BBC is removing recipes from top chefs from its websites if they have not been aired in a programme for more than 30 days.

This has caused outrage on social media, with users commenting about other cuts which could have been made and the benefits of the recipes.

Father Ted and IT Crowd co-writer Graham Linehan highlighted a petition to save the archive.

The petition to save the BBC's recipe archive has gained more than 26,000 signatures after only being created this morning.

A number of famous faces have backed the petition to save the database.

Pointless co-host Richard Osman posted: "Can't believe the BBC is now banned from publishing online recipes. No idea what to have for breakfast."

Others saw it as a chance to mock George Osborne and the Conservative party.

A BBC source has said that the company is 'archiving' existing recipes, and no further recipes would be added to the collection.

Today's announcements from BBC news and current affairs director James Harding also revealed that the Newsbeat app along with BBC's travel site and local news web pages as well as their food website will be closing.