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The first indication the local man had of his situation was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his door and informed him his beloved Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I stepped outside expecting a small pothole under a wheel or something like that. But when I walked out to take a look, I understood, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he stated.

His vehicle had dropped into a 10-foot wide gap, possibly caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days stuck in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to retrieve his car.

The Core Problem: Unclaimed Land

The complication is that the land has no registered owner. The local council has said it won't take down the fences blocking off the hole until land ownership had been established. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood in Redruth for about a decade and actually has a designated spot beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the shop and the council that he wouldn't get a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then came that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "My neighbour was very alarmed. The officers arrived and closed the zone off. We all had to remain in the homes because we can't get out without passing by the collapse. The highways people came out, put the barrier up, and then they came out and put a second fence up surrounding it as well."

It is believed the opening may be an unlucky legacy of Pednandrea Mine, a disused copper and tin mine.

McKenzie thought he would be separated from his car for a few days. But days have now turned into weeks.

A Potential Solution

An end may be in sight. The council has said it will work with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the barriers to permit the car to be removed. He commented: "They have agreed to work with my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a date and an acceptable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at risk."

The car has been badly damaged and is probably to be declared a total loss. "At least I can say my Mini met its end in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their car was eaten by the ground beneath them," McKenzie remarked.

Authority Response

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

"As the land is unregistered, our safety measures will stay up until property ownership has been determined, and we will persist to monitor the vicinity to ensure public safety."