Memorial designer's previous effort also runs dry

It has been open a mere fortnight, yet the Diana Memorial Fountain has been beset by setback after embarrassing setback.

Designer Kathryn Gustafson's £3.6 million "moat without a castle" has flooded twice and now it has emerged the circle's "cascades" will be turned off once a week for cleaning.

Perhaps Londoners should have known to expect a fiasco - for 10 miles across the capital lies another creation by Ms Gustafson that has been mired in controversy and failure.

The stone "cascade" designed to link two lakes in Crystal Palace Park with running water bears more than a passing resemblance to the Diana memorial. And, shockingly, it has never worked.

Community groups and users of the Grade II listed park have been appalled by a four-year saga that has left them with an unsightly, litter-strewn trench.

Pat Trembath, chairman of the local Sydenham Society, said: "We have a stone channel that joins the concert-bowl lake above and the fishing lake below. But the concert-bowl lake needs to overflow for the channel to fill with water, and this happens only when it is raining very hard.

"Most of the time the main channel is mostly dry, with puddles and debris at the back of each step. What was needed was a pump to circulate water between the two ponds via the channel. But the money ran out before they bought it." More than 300 mature trees - including 160-year-old cedars - were felled to make way for the Gustafson water feature and other "improvements" after Bromley council approved the design in 1999.

The plan went ahead despite the Heritage Lottery fund rejecting a bid for funding because it felt the design was too contemporary for the historic London site. As well, Bromley's own Advisory Panel for Conservation Areas had strong reservations about Ms Gustafson's plan, saying: "Some of the detailed design was at best disappointing and at worst harmful."

Four years on, Gustafson's Crystal Palace "cascade" lies empty and unloved - it simply doesn't work. Water does not flow in the stepped-stone channel, which had to be relaid because of leaks.

Ms Gustafson's British business partner, Neil Porter, admits the cascade does not work. However, he blames bad construction and underfunding.

Mr Porter said: "Water should be flowing naturally from the concert-hall lake above to the fishing lake below. But the upper lake was badly built and is not properly tanked. As a result it is leaking and most of the time the water level is not high enough to overflow into the cascade.

A Bromley spokesman said: " The stone channel was designed with the natural hydrology of Crystal Palace Park in mind. At times, the channel will be dry and at other times, it will run. This was part of the original design and we are therefore happy with the landscape feature as built."