Camden Council will press on with naming a Highgate roundabout after an assassinated Russian democracy campaigner despite local opposition.

The naming of a roundabout at the junction of Highgate Road, Highgate West Hill and Swain's Lane as Boris Nemtsov Place is due to take place on Monday.

However many locals have condemned the plan.

A petition by the Highgate Village Green Preservation Society to stop the naming event currently has 165 signatures.

Highgate Society has also called the project "a Camden folly".

Boris Nemtsov repeatedly spoke out against Vladimir Putin’s regime and campaigned to uphold democracy in Russia.

He was shot and killed crossing the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, near the Kremlin, as he walked home with his Ukrainian girlfriend Anna Duritskaya after a night out on February 27, 2015.

Camden Council is the first UK local authority to commemorate him by applying to rename a junction after the Russian dissident – near the Russian Trade Delegation.

The local authority joins Washington DC, Vilnius, Kyiv, Bratislava, Prague and Greater Toronto in naming an area after him.

Helen Rapley, who launched the petition, said Camden Council leader Cllr Georgia Gould "railroaded all residents of the local area into adopting the name, with associated implications, without their consent".

"Georgia Gould has acted in an extremely undemocratic way, purportedly in the name of democracy, turning the situation into a complete farce and showing gross disregard for local residents," she added.

The Highgate Society said on its website: "Alterations to the roundabout will cost several thousand pounds of taxpayers’ money, and there will be a substantial further cost through long diversions of the three bus routes which use the roundabout, as well as inconvenience to other users of these quite busy roads.

It added: "This is a waste of money, there has been quite inadequate consultation and the arrangements for the ceremony were even made before the consultation was finished.

"Since the plan was announced the Society has heard nothing but opposition to it."

Cllr Georgia Gould said: “This is supported by a cross party campaign nationally and it sits within our traditions in Camden of taking a stand against oppression.

“We renamed a street after Nelson Mandela in 1983.

"I have been contacted by Russian dissidents living in Camden who have said how much this idea means and I hope it will support all who show enormous courage in the face of oppression.”

Camden Council held a four-week consultation into naming the roundabout, which ended on Wednesday.