 The maintenance contractor responsible for maintaining the plant later settled out of court with the Council's claim of damages totalling £1.5 million.On the evening of 5 February 2004, dozens of illegal Chinese workers were collecting cockles off the Cumbrian coast when rising tides led to 23 of them drowning in Morecambe Bay.They were all illegal immigrants, mainly from the Fujian province of China, and were described as untrained and inexperienced.