The last edition of the weekly Greenwich Time was published after the council lost a £80,072 legal battle to keep the paper open.

The newspaper was found to be in breach of the Local Authority Publicity Code, which determined it was "not objective", "not even handed" and that it's weekly publication was too frequent.

The council spent £64,722 on legal costs and £15,350 on staff costs on the bid.

The council will now only be able to publish "newpaper-like" communications four times a year.

According to council figures the cost of publishing the paper was an average of £596,677 in the five years to 2014/15.

Conservative councillors are now questioning where the money will be spent.

Councillor Matt Hartley, Leader of Greenwich Conservatives, said: “After all these years, this appalling misuse of taxpayers’ money has finally come to an end.  

“We now need to know how Labour councillors intend to spend the nearly £600,000 a year of taxpayers’ money that they have been wasting on Greenwich Time for all these years. 

"Opposition councillors will not allow this money to simply disappear in the council’s budget, especially when cuts are being made elsewhere.

"This is a big step forward for democracy in our borough.”

In the final edition council leader Denise Hyland wrote: "GT is closing because we need to take account of what publicity the Government will allow and this did not include a free weekly newspaper.

"I know that this local newspaper has become reflective of the incredible history and characteristics of our area and its people and will be missed by many."