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The initial 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 hole.

"I went out anticipating a small pothole under a tire or something similar. But when I went out to take a look, I understood, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he stated.

His vehicle had dropped into a 3-metre wide opening, likely caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days stuck in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to figure out how to retrieve his car.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the property isn't registered. The local council has stated it won't take down the barriers cordoning off the hole until property rights had been confirmed. "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 parking space beside his house, but it is too narrow to be practical so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the council that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"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 constantly dreamed to go."

The Incident and Consequences

Then came that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was quite panicked. The police arrived and closed the zone off. We all had to remain in the houses because we can't get out without passing by the collapse. The highways people arrived, put the fence up, and then they returned and put a second fence up around it as well."

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

McKenzie thought he would be without his car for a few days. But days have now become weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An conclusion may be approaching. The council has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the barriers to allow the car to be removed. He said: "They have agreed to work with my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to schedule a day and an suitable way of extracting it that doesn't put anybody at risk."

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

Council Response

A representative from the local council said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not occur on public property. We have made the area safe and advised the car owner that we will organize to lift the barrier to allow him to recover the car.

"As the land is unregistered, our safety measures will remain in place until property ownership has been determined, and we will continue to monitor the surrounding area to ensure everyone's security."