Thousands of recipes to be archived from BBC website

'These changes won’t be popular with all members of the public, but we think they are the right thing to do'

The move is understood to be part of plans to save £15 million by scaling down magazine-style content as well as local news (BBC Food)

More than 11,000 recipes are to be archived from the BBC’s website as part of a review of its online content.

Recipes from TV programmes will remain online for 30 days rather than being available indefinitely. The plans will not affect commercial services such as BBC Good Food.

The move is understood to be part of plans to save £15 million by scaling down magazine-style content as well as local news. Some travel content is also expected to be taken off-line.

The BBC said online services have to be “high-quality, distinctive, and offer genuine public value”.

The corporation said: “While our audiences expect us to be online, we have never sought to be all things to all people and the changes being announced will ensure that we are not.”

“These changes won’t be popular with all members of the public, but we think they are the right thing to do.”

Suspected plans to makes cuts to the BBC’s recipe site have led the chef and anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe to publish her recipes from the website on a free blog.

Writing on Facebook she said: “I learned to cook on the dole using free recipes online and for the BBC to reduce this vital service is an abomination.

“I hope I can go some way to filling the gap left for free, instructional, simple recipe resources and cookery guidance, which is vital for so many people.”

The announcement follows the publication of the White Paper on the future of the BBC, which sets out a plan for the corporation, including maintaining the license fee.

James Harding, head of news and current affairs, will brief staff on Tuesday on the future of online services. The online creative review was launched last autumn by Mr Harding and is expected to focus on news services, live sport and sport news, an “ideas service” comprised of the best in “arts, culture, history and science”, educational online services, entertainment on BBC iPlayer and national events.

George Osborne has previously commented on the size of the BBC's online recipe catalogue.

In an interview last July he said: “If you’ve got a website that’s got features and cooking recipes – effectively the BBC website becomes the national newspaper as well as the national broadcaster.

“You wouldn’t want the BBC to completely crowd out national newspapers. The BBC website... is becoming a bit more imperial in its ambitions.”

Earlier this year, BBC news said it was planning to make £80 million in savings over the next four years as the service attempts to save £550 million a year by 2021 and 2022. The £15 million saved in the online creative review is on top of the annual savings.

Additional reporting by Press Association