Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted on mobile phones for council employees, it has been claimed.

Lambeth Council shelled out more than £500,000 on phone contracts for staff between 2009 and 2010, according to information in a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Streatham Guardian.

The data shows mobile phones were given to employees in four council departments - children and young people’s services, adults’ and community services, regeneration and housing and finance and resources.

The council claims it has since cut the cost by a third, but spending on phone contracts still exceeded £100,000 in 2011.

It insists the phones are essential for staff working “anti-social hours”, but critics claim the taxpayer funded scheme is unnecessary given most people now own their own mobile phone.

Councillor John Whelan, Conservative group leader, said the council should instead offer short term loans to employees who could not afford a phone, which would eventually be deducted from their annual salary.

He said: “Spending on mobile phones at the council is clearly completely out of control.

“Virtually every employee has their own cell phone anyway so why can’t they just use their own equipment to take calls away from their desk or when travelling around the borough?

“If there is anyone who can’t afford to buy their own phone then surely this could be done through a loan repaid by deductions through payroll.”

But a council spokesman said it was continuing to reduce costs on phone bills, adding it had saved £1.3million since 2006.

He said: “We have successfully reduced our mobile phone costs by a third over the past year and this overall bill is to provide phones to members of staff who work anti-social hours or need to work flexibly such as social workers.

“We have plans to replace our desk top phone network with low cost mobile phones across the council which will dramatically reduce expenditure.”