FIVE-TIME Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton has been criticised by his home town for referring to it as “the slums” at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards.

Hamilton, who finished second in Sunday’s public vote behind Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas, made the comment about Stevenage during an on-stage interview.

Hamilton, 33, had just been named among the nominees for the main prize at SPOTY when he told presenter Gabby Logan: "It's been a really long journey, a dream for us all, as a family, to do something different, to get out of the slums.

"Well, we would say it's not the slums, but just come out from somewhere and do something. We all set our goals very high but we did it as a team."

Sharon Taylor, the leader of Stevenage borough council said it was “disappointing” and people felt “very offended” by the comments.

Ms Taylor, who has been appointed OBE for her work in local government, wrote on Twitter: "Disappointing that @lewisHamilton chose to use this event to make negative comments about his home town. Nowhere is perfect but we’ll go high & say we are #ProudofStevenage."

A university lecturer, 39, who used to live on the same road as the sports star, told the Sun Online: "It was a 90s new build estate, I was about 15, he was around nine or ten.

"This has been bugging me for a while because his rhetoric has been going on since he joined Formula One.

"He says he's from the slums of Stevenage but I've always known that the road [Ayr Close] he lived on with his Dad, Anthony, was 90s new build detached, so it's not slums at all.

"So Stevenage may not be the most glamorous of places but it certainly isn't a slum and the bit he lived in was probably one of the nicest bits of town."

The former neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, added: "I think people need to understand where they're from and where they grow up has an influence on your life and to be disparaging like that is probably rude to the people he went to school with, he lived with, that are still in the town but maybe don't have a multi-million pound life.

"The whole estate was probably built in the early 90s and that whole area on the edge of Stevenage was developed in the 80s/90s - it's 90 per cent detached houses with drives and garages, it's not the 50s new town. It's the nicer section of the town.

"And the school he went to as well, John Henry Newman, was the only partially selective school in town because it was Catholic and they were very strict about that, whereas the rest of the town was comprehensives. So he lived in the nicest bit in town and went to the only selective school.

"It's not growing up in a slum is it?"

Catherine Hennessy tweeted: "I'm from Stevenage. Lived 2 doors away from Lewis Hamilton until he moved away to live with his Dad. NOT a slum. I am very offended about that."

Gobi Ranganathan, England para-badminton player, tweeted how he was “proud to fly the flag for #Stevenage”, adding: "It’s not perfect, but it’s home. And it has a lot to offer if people just open their eyes."

Stevenage, which is about 30 miles north of London, became the UK's first New Town in 1946 and property prices in the growing town are just above the national average.

Britain's richest sportsman, Hamilton was born and raised in the town, where he went to school with Manchester United left-back Ashley Young, and started go-karting there when he was six.

The former Peartree Junior School and John Henry Newman School student previously lived on Peartree Way before moving to Ayr Close and then a six-bedroom detached house in Woodfield Road with dad Anthony.

In a previous interview the racing driver claimed he was "hungrier" for the Formula 1 drivers' title than rival Nico Rosberg because he was from "a not great place in Stevenage" and lived "on a couch" in his dad's house.

He said: "Nico grew up in Monaco with jets and boats and all these kind of things, so the hunger is different."

Hamilton relocated to Switzerland in 2007 and then Monaco in 2010 - moves he has since admitted were at least partly motivated by tax reasons.

In fact, his tax arrangements have been criticised by members of parliament among others, and last year he was named in a leak of confidential documents as allegedly having benefited from a tax-avoidance scheme involving a private jet.

He was also forced to apologise for a social media post in which he appeared to criticise his nephew for wearing a princess dress at Christmas.

Hamilton, the most successful British driver in F1 history, subsequently apologised for the comment and took his nephew, who was wearing a dress, to Disneyland Paris.

Apart from the Stevenage slip, Hamilton won praise on Sunday for his part in paying tribute to Billy Monger, the 19-year-old who won the Helen Rollason Award for returning to motorsport this year 11 months after losing both of his legs in a horror crash at Donington Park.

He was previously crowned Sports Personality of the Year winner in 2014.

Britain's richest sportsman has not responded to a request for comment or tried to clarify his remarks on his own social media channels