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The initial indication the local man had of his situation was when a neighbor urgently banged on his door and informed him his cherished Mini had fallen into a opening.

"I stepped outside anticipating a minor dip under a wheel or something similar. But when I walked out to take a look, I understood, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he explained.

His vehicle had dropped into a 3-metre wide opening, likely caused by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to retrieve his car.

The Main Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the property has no registered owner. The local council has said it can't remove the fences cordoning off the sinkhole until land ownership had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed designer. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has lived in the neighborhood in Redruth for about 10 years and actually has a parking space beside his house, but it is too narrow to be practical so he began parking outside a nearby bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the local authority that he wouldn't get a ticket.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a dependable little car that was economical and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could at last focus on trying to save up to take my daughter on her dream trip to Japan one day. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The police arrived and secured the area off. We all had to stay in the homes because we can't get out without going past the hole. The road crew came out, erected the fence up, and then they returned and placed a second fence 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 separated from his vehicle for a few days. But days have now become weeks.

A Potential Solution

An conclusion may be approaching. The council has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – remove the fences to permit the Mini to be recovered. He said: "They have agreed 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 vehicle has been badly damaged and is likely to be written off. "On the bright side I can say my Mini met its end in style – not everyone can claim their vehicle was swallowed by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Authority Response

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

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will remain in place until land ownership has been established, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to guarantee everyone's security."