Anger over Diana 'fiasco'

The woman behind the Diana memorial today describes the entire project as a "fiasco".

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Rosa Monckton, chair of the Diana Memorial Committee and a close friend of the princess, spoke for the first time of the " nightmare" surrounding the plans.

Ms Monckton said: "I am angry, very angry, that the whole thing turned into a fiasco. I have worked all my life in the entrepreneurial end of the private sector and I have never experienced anything like it."

Choosing the site - Hyde Park - was "a nightmare", Ms Monckton said. She added that while Diana was a difficult woman who could be "capricious and manipulative", she deserved to be remembered by something that the public could participate in.

The winning design by American Kathryn Gustafson, in partnership with English architect Neil Porter, features an oval stream of water running in two directions, shallow enough for children to play in, to be sited close to the Serpentine - one of Diana's favourite spots.

But it will not be built until nearly seven years after her death after the Government yesterday put back the deadline for its completion. Ms Monckton attacks the "time-wasting" of the European regulations that had to be negotiated and criticised the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

"When you see how a government department doesn't work, it is astonishing anything ever happens in this country," she said.

The winning design of a "moat without a castle" was only announced this week, five years after the princess's death. However, the Government has had to move its official deadline for completion back a year to 2004 because of engineering complexities.

Ms Monckton, who is married to Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson, said she thought her name had been dragged through the mud.

Describing the process of choosing the winning design for the memorial, she said: "It is quite damaging to my reputation as a businesswoman that somehow I cannot get a decision out of eight people sitting round a table on something that is actually very important."

Ms Monckton also revealed that she had confronted Gordon Brown at the Queen's Golden Jubilee pop concert and threatened to "go public" if he did not speed things up. She said: "The problem was European rules and regulations. I was told that I probably did have a casting vote but that was irrelevant as we hadn't followed European procedures and guidelines.

"In the end I bumped into Gordon Brown at the concert and basically told him things needed speeding up immediately or I was going to go public. That is when Tessa ( Jowell) got very involved."

Ms Monckton added that Culture Secretary Ms Jowell had been "fantastic".

Ms Monckton spoke candidly about the princess. "Diana was many things. "She was difficult, capricious and manipulative. She wasn't a saint, but she was an unhappy woman."

She added: "I believe Diana should be remembered for what she was - someone who really loved people, who moved people.

"That's why I chose the Gustafson memorial because, for me, it is absolutely symbolic of what Diana stood for. A memorial should be something you participate in. It's not an untouchable work of art. The public can dip their hands in the pools and feel so included."

get a helicopter to work," says Monckton, "but it was the only way I could do that and do the school run as well. And it wasn't glamorous. I would stagger out in the rain over a muddy field and spend the journey desperately smoothing my hair and changing my wellies for shoes." Monckton down-sized a year ago. She now goes to work one day a week as a nonexecutive director. "I believe in change," she says. "I don't just sit in a place of complacency. I don't even sit necessarily in a place of contentment."

She says that is why she and Diana got on so well. "The thing about Diana," she says, looking at a photograph, "is that she wasn't just this figurehead who sat about and did nothing. She resigned from her charities because she didn't just want to be a name; she wanted to be out there doing something. Her legacy is just that. I know that when Diana died, people wrote a lot of guff about how her death would change the fabric of the nation. I knew that was never going to happen. How can one person change what a nation stands for? But I believe Diana should be remembered for what she was - someone who really loved people, who moved people.

"She was magically inclusive and she knew who really mattered. If she visited a hospital, she would push past the mayor and the luminaries and go straight for the patients and the nurses who looked after them. That's why I chose the Gustafson memorial, because, for me, it symbolises what Diana stood for. A memorial should be something you participate in. It's not an untouchable work of art. The public can dip their hands in the pools and feel so included.

"It is utterly symbolic of Diana, with its circle of light and the movement of water. Diana loved water, just loved it. In her last letter to me, she wrote it was her favourite element. What did those critics want? Something like those horrid Queen Mother gates? In years to come, when no one remembers who Diana was, people will still find joy in this memorial. I do not doubt that for a second."