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The initial indication Malcolm McKenzie had of his predicament was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his door and informed him his cherished Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I went out anticipating a minor dip under a wheel or something like that. But when I walked out to check it out, I realized, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he explained.

His automobile had descended into a 10-foot wide gap, likely created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Main Issue: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the property has no registered owner. The authorities has said it can't remove the barriers blocking off the sinkhole until property rights had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance creative. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has lived in the area in Redruth for about a decade and in fact has a designated spot next to his house, but it is too narrow to be useful so he started leaving his car outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the bakery and the council that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It meant I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my daughter on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then came that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police turned up and closed the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we can't get out without going past the hole. The highways people arrived, erected the barrier up, and then they returned and put a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

It is believed the hole may be an unfortunate remnant of Pednandrea Mine, a abandoned copper and tin mine.

McKenzie thought he would be without his vehicle for a short period. But days have now become weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An end may be approaching. The council has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the barriers to permit the car to be recovered. He commented: "They are willing to work with my insurance company's recovery team and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been badly damaged and is probably to be written off. "On the bright side I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their car was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Authority Statement

A spokesperson from the authorities said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "This collapse did not occur on council land. We have made the area safe and informed the car owner that we will arrange to lift the fence to enable him to retrieve the vehicle.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will remain in place until land ownership has been determined, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to ensure everyone's security."