As lorries, buses and cars continue to clog up the streets, a new group is urging people to help sort out "the mess that is Hampstead's traffic".

Led by residents groups in Hampstead and Frognal, Hampstead Transport Partnership aims to bring people together to present Camden Council and Transport for London with a joined-up plan.

Green Party member Charles Harris said the group had held its first meeting on May 21 "to try and deal with the mess that is Hampstead traffic".

The group says school run cars - often coming from outside the area - have been a problem for decades, adding air pollution, too many lorries and too few buses to the mix.

Mr Harris believes Hampstead needs better pedestrian access - with narrow pavements, too much clutter and too few crossing places cited by the group.

He believes better bus timetabling could help, and the partnership points to limited provision and a lack of 'hoppa' bus services, as well as lack of step-free access at Underground and Overground stations.

To make matters worse, Mr Harris says many lorries needlessly clog up Hampstead's roads because of drivers misdirected by satellite navigation systems.

He added: "We need to talk to sat nav people who send lorries down Mount Square. Even simple things like changing sat nav settings and not having East Street as an A-road, things like that."

Mr Harris urged people to take part in the group's survey about Hampstead's traffic problems, which is available at www.hampsteadtransport.com and runs until June 14.

The group includes Redington & Frognal Neighbourhood Forum, the Heath & Hampstead Society, Netherhall Neighbourhood Association, Lindfield and Langland Association, and Hampstead Town and Frognal ward councillors of all parties.

It is using £35,000 levied from developers to pay for traffic consultant PJA to research traffic and road safety issues in Hampstead.

Mr Harris hopes the cost of the research will encourage Camden Council and TfL to "get their finger out and do something about traffic up here".

He added: "We don't want a fight. This is an open door for them."

A Camden Council spokesperson said its Camden Transport Strategy sets a vision for the whole borough which "determine our approach to addressing transport challenges at a local level".

They added: “We are always willing to work with community groups, such as Hampstead Transport Partnership, as part of our engagement on initiatives that align with the policies and measures we have consulted on and adopted through our Camden Transport Strategy.”