A COMMUNITY radio station has angered listeners with a "vile" Facebook post mocking homeless people.
Tone FM uploaded three photos of bundled-up duvets in a doorway with the caption: "In town today? Need a rest?
"Perhaps this attractive looking bedroom is what you need..."

 

Somerset County Gazette:

Dozens of listeners wrote comments branding Tone FM's attitude 'vile', 'disgusting' and 'horribly flippant'.
Tobias Faulkner wrote: "Vile. How about we make you lose your jobs, kick you out on the street, make you lose everything and see how you
deal with people taking the p**s out of the homeless then.
"Help people, don't kick them down."
Another listener, Lauren Jewhurst, said: "Horribly flippant thing to say.
"You have no idea who this person is or why they are there."
Lesley Tanton, another listener, said the post had clearly been written by someone "without empathy and lacking a genuine sense of humour".
Rich Smith also commented, writing: "How about finding out more about the homeless people in Taunton instead of making fun of them?"
And Joanne Glynn added: "Disgusting from a radio station."
Tone FM, which broadcasts from Taunton, Somerset, said the post was intended to "highlight the issue" of homelessness.
The volunteer-run station, which shares a building with the Taunton Association for the Homeless, has since apologised and removed the post.

Station manager Darren Cullum said they would be reviewing their social media policy and training in light of the incident.
He said: "This post was intended to highlight the issue within Taunton but we fully accept that the wording did not convey those views.
"As a community radio station we would never seek to cause offence and we acted swiftly to remove the post and apologise when our listeners told us that we had got it wrong.
"We are a community radio station run by volunteers and we try to allow our staff the freedom to express themselves.
"However we are fully aware that in this instance we have not carried out the right amount of due diligence.
"As a result we are reviewing our policy on social media and also the training and information given to volunteers who give up there time for the station."
He added that Tone FM works closely with the Taunton Association for the Homeless to try and highlight the plight of people in the area.
"To further those aims we share premises with TAH and we support all the campaigns that they run," he said.
"They are also regular contributors to the output of the station."

Somerset County Gazette:

Taunton Association for the Homeless bosses have accepted the post was a mistake and have accepted an apology from the radio station.

TAH spokeswoman Rosie Hather said: "When we saw it at first we did think, 'I wonder why they've put that up'.

"We're close to Tone FM and work with them a lot. It was a bit of a mistake and they hadn't fully understood how it might look to others.

"They have personally apologised to us because they didn't mean to offend anyone - it was just worded poorly and we understand that.

"Everyone makes mistakes and they've apologised to anyone they may have caused offence to as well.

"The person who posted it would never want to offend anyone."