Diana's fountain fenced while fixes made
Workers have drained a fountain dedicated to the memory of the late Princess of Wales and surrounded it with a 2.3-metre-high fence as they scramble to make it safer for the public.
Queen Elizabeth inaugurated the fountain less than a month ago, but its design has been creating controversy for two years.
The shallow, burbling watercourse amounts to a granite moat with an oval layout measuring 80 by 50 metres in London's Hyde Park.
- FROM JULY 6, 2004: Queen inaugurates Diana's fountain
Supporters of the $8.5-million project meant it to be a user-friendly tribute to Diana, who died in a 1997 car crash. They especially hoped that children would paddle in it on hot summer days.
However, in the month since the fountain's dedication, three people, including a child, have been injured in slips on the algae-covered granite bottom.
Workers are now roughening the texture of the granite to make such mishaps less likely, and high-speed water jets will clean the structure of slime on a weekly basis.
Park staff will also have to clear away other debris â including dog droppings, leaves and even children's diapers â that have been blocking the fountain's plumbing and leading to flooding in some cases.