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The initial sign Malcolm McKenzie had of his situation was when a neighbor loudly knocked on his door and told him his cherished Mini had fallen into a hole.

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

His vehicle had dropped into a 10-foot wide opening, possibly created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has endured 25 days stuck in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Land

The hitch is that the property isn't registered. The local council has stated it won't take down the barriers cordoning off the sinkhole 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 lived in the area in Redruth for about a decade and in fact has a parking space beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be practical so he began parking outside a nearby bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the council that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable little car that was economical and simple to keep on the road. It meant I could finally focus on trying to put money aside to take my child on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

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

It is thought the opening may be an unlucky legacy of a historic local mine, a abandoned mining site.

McKenzie thought he would be separated from his vehicle for a few days. But that short time have now become weeks.

A Possible Resolution

An end may be in sight. The council has said it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the barriers to allow the car to be removed. He commented: "They have agreed to assist my insurer's recovery team and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of getting it out that ensures no anybody at risk."

The car has been significantly harmed and is probably to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini went out in style – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Council Statement

A spokesperson from the local council expressed it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have made the area safe and advised the car owner that we will arrange to lift the barrier to enable him to recover the vehicle.

"As the land is unregistered, our barriers will stay up until property ownership has been established, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to guarantee public safety."