They aren't destroying it just for the hell of it; BBC Online has been cut across the board because they were so wasteful in the past.
I'm an ex BBC Online employee. Most people don't realise quite how few people are involved in the creation and update of the BBC website. When I was there it was generally 2 people per site (and each person was on more than one site). We had a dozen staff looking after a hundred sites using old and borrowed tech and the occasional independent flash developer.
The BBC was never wasteful. Don't believe what you read in the anti-BBC press. They have their own agenda.