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The first sign Malcolm McKenzie received of his situation was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his door and told him his cherished Mini had plunged into a opening.

"I went out expecting a minor dip under a wheel or something like that. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he explained.

His vehicle had dropped into a 3-metre wide gap, possibly caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to extricate his Mini.

The Main Problem: Unclaimed Land

The hitch is that the property isn't registered. The authorities has said it can't remove the barriers cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed creative. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has lived in the area in Redruth for about a decade and actually has a designated spot beside his house, but it is too narrow to be practical so he started leaving his car outside a local bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the local authority that he wouldn't get a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was making progress, I had a dependable little car that was fuel-efficient and simple to keep on the road. It meant I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Aftermath

Then arrived that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers arrived and closed the area off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without passing by the collapse. The road crew came out, erected the barrier up, and then they returned and placed a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

It is thought the hole may be an unfortunate legacy of Pednandrea Mine, a disused mining site.

McKenzie believed he would be without his vehicle for a short period. But that short time have now turned into weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An end may be in sight. The council has said it will work with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the fences to permit the car to be recovered. He commented: "They are willing to assist my insurer's retrieval crew and try to arrange a date and an suitable way of extracting it that ensures no anybody at risk."

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

Authority Statement

A representative from the authorities expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it added: "This collapse did not happen on public property. We have made the area safe and informed the car owner that we will arrange to temporarily remove the fence to allow him to recover 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 surrounding area to ensure public safety."