Huge demand for ‘cashpoint cops’ leads to two-day wait

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The scheme in Wanstead and Snaresbrook is so popular that the safer neighbourhood team that runs it admits it cannot guarantee everyone who makes a request can be provided with a chaperone.

One of the officers said: "We are fully booked. Lots of people have been ringing in and asking for it because they read about it in the Evening Standard."

There are seven members of the police team who chaperone residents. The service is available to people living in the team's area.

Chris Cummings, a Snaresbrook Tory councillor, called the service "a victim of its own success". He added: "If you are elderly and you need to get money out of a cash machine quickly and would like an escort, it's not going to be of that much use for you."

Mr Cummings said police needed to ensure that urgent requests from vulnerable people could be accommodated.

Tory MP Ann Widdecombe called the scheme "silly".