BBC director is branded an ‘elite entitled brat’ by residents after calling their tower block homes ‘dumps’
A BBC director has sparked outrage after describing a London tower block used for broadcasting during the 2012 Olympics as a dump.
BBC News creative director Chris Cook made the comments on social media, posting a picture of the tower block in Newham, east London.
The 50-year-old wrote: ‘We had the best time in this dump of a tower block in 2012.’
Pictured: BBC News creative director Chris Cook has sparked outrage after describing a London tower block as a dump when he filmed there during the London Olympics in 2012
The post shared by BBC executive Chris Cook describing Lund Point in Newham as a dump
The picture was captioned with arrows indicating that there were purpose-built news and weather studios on the top floors of the Lund Point tower block which overlooks the Olympic Park.
Dino Sofos, BBC News podcasts editor, then shared a staff manual from the same time, in which another unnamed boss told workers: ‘Hopefully no one will find themselves stuck at Lund Point much, apart from me.’
The posts, which have since been removed from Twitter, were met with anger from the local community.
Clare King wrote: ‘Do you realise how you sound like a pair of elite entitled brats?’
Accusing him of being arrogant, Lara Oyedele said: ‘Chris. My fabulous aunt lives in that block. I’d rather you were not so condescending about it. It IS home for some people.’
Another resident added: ‘Your contempt for council tenants is disgusting.’
Pictured: Mr Cook later deleted the tweet and apologised for his use of ‘insensitive language’
One person tweeted: ‘Man from BBC describes council housing as a dump and shows with his classist attitude how out of touch he is with Britain’s housing crisis. What an outrage.’
Another added: ‘Glad you had fun while families were denied homes and dumped in bedsits.’
Mr Cook, 50, who lives in a £450,000 house in west London, has now removed the post and shared an apology.
He said: ‘I deleted a previous tweet about Lund Point. My language was insensitive and I want to say sorry for my mistake.’
The BBC rented the top two floors of the tower block from Newham Council for the London Olympics in 2012 because of its spectacular view of Olympic Park.
The BBC declined to comment.