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The initial indication the local man had of his situation was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his front door and informed him his beloved Mini had fallen into a opening.

"I went out anticipating a minor dip under a tire or something like that. But when I went out to check it out, I understood, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he stated.

His automobile had dropped into a 10-foot wide gap, possibly created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to figure out how to extricate his Mini.

The Main Issue: Unregistered Land

The complication is that the property isn't registered. The local council 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 designer. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about 10 years and actually has a parking space 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 local authority that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my daughter on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "My neighbour was quite panicked. The officers arrived and closed the zone off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without going past the collapse. The highways people came out, put the fence up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up around it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be separated from his vehicle for a short period. But days have now turned into weeks.

A Possible Solution

An end may be in sight. The authorities has said it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the barriers to permit the car to be recovered. He said: "They have agreed to work with my insurance company's recovery team and try to arrange a date and an acceptable way of getting it out that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been badly damaged and is probably to be declared a total loss. "On the bright side I can say my Mini met its end in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Authority Statement

A spokesperson from the local council said it sympathised with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not occur on council land. We have secured the location and informed the vehicle owner that we will arrange to temporarily remove the fence to enable him to recover the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our safety measures will stay up until property ownership has been determined, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to guarantee public safety."