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 including dog droppings, leaves and even children's diapers that have been blocking the fountain's plumbing and leading to flooding in some cases.