it was announced in october 2007 that manchester city council were taking legal action against the makers of the sculpture, with the aim of completing the necessary repairs to the sculpture. in november 2008 this culminated in an out-of-court settlement being reached between manchester city council, the project's designers thomas heatherwick studio ltd, and the engineering and construction subcontractors packman lucas ltd, flint and neill partnership and westbury structures ltd. the agreement was to pay the council £1.7m in damages for breach of contract and negligence.