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The first indication the local man received of his situation was when a neighbor urgently banged on his front door and told him his beloved Mini had fallen into a opening.

"I went out expecting a small pothole under a wheel or something like that. But when I walked out to check it out, I understood, oh, that really is a significant cavity," he explained.

His automobile had descended into a 3-metre wide gap, possibly created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to extricate his Mini.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Land

The complication is that the land has no registered owner. The authorities has stated it can't remove the fences cordoning off the hole until property rights had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about 10 years and in fact has a designated spot next to his house, but it is too narrow to be useful so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the local authority that he wouldn't get a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was making progress, I had a reliable small vehicle that was fuel-efficient and simple to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan one day. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police turned up and secured the zone off. We all had to remain in the houses because we can't get out without going past the collapse. The road crew arrived, erected the barrier up, and then they came out and put a second fence up around it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be separated from his car for a short period. But that short time have now turned into weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An conclusion may be approaching. The council has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – temporarily – remove the barriers to permit the car to be recovered. He said: "They are willing to work with my insurer's recovery team and try to schedule a date and an acceptable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at risk."

The car has been significantly harmed and is likely to be declared a total loss. "On the bright side I can say my Mini went out in style – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Council Statement

A spokesperson from the local council expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "This collapse did not occur on council land. We have made the area safe and advised the car owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the barrier to allow him to retrieve the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will stay up until land ownership has been determined, and we will continue to observe the surrounding area to guarantee everyone's security."