Diana fountain's design flaws leave public with £1m maintenance bill

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12 April 2012

More than £1 million of public cash has been spent maintaining the Diana memorial fountain, the Standard can reveal.

The circular sculpture in Hyde Park commemorating the Princess of Wales was £2.2 million over its £3 million budget when it opened in 2004 and has been blighted by design flaws.

Now the Evening Standard has learned the total bill for its upkeep has hit seven figures - at a time managers are having to shed staff and reduce the money spent on maintaining the nine royal parks, including Regent's Park and Richmond Park.

Documents obtained under freedom of information laws reveal that the Royal Parks Agency recently ordered a review of the fountain's maintenance in a bid to control costs.

It has spent £120,000 over four years on new sealant linking the fountain's 550 granite blocks after cracks and over-intensive cleaning, which washed away the sealant, left the ground water-logged. Fittings that held the "swoosh" water jets became dislodged, forcing it to be switched off for 18 months to prevent danger to the public.

Royal Parks bosses also found that the footpath around the fountain was not sufficiently hard-wearing for the number of visitors attracted each year and will need to be replaced.

The report said: "There are a number of issues with the fountain ... which were not envisaged at the design stage. These items could be reviewed so as to eliminate/reduce the financial demands."

It predicts the maintenance bill will grow by a further £217,500 by 2015 - excluding the £100,000 annual cost of stewards, cleaning and gardening.

The Royal Parks Agency, which is to come under the control of City Hall after the Olympics, receives £20 million a year from the Government but is facing a 36 per cent cut in funding over five years, forcing it to lose about 30 staff.

Designed by American landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, the fountain had to be closed 16 days after opening in July 2004, and again the following year to have safety features added. A National Audit Office inquiry was launched into the costs and a parliamentary committee criticised the lack of oversight of a "troubled project".

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