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The initial sign the local man had of his situation was when a person living nearby urgently banged on his door and told him his cherished Mini had plunged into a hole.

"I stepped outside expecting a small pothole under a wheel or something similar. But when I walked out to check it out, I understood, oh, that truly is a significant cavity," he explained.

His automobile had descended into a 10-foot wide gap, possibly created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has endured 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "nightmare" trying to determine how to extricate his Mini.

The Main Problem: Unclaimed Land

The hitch is that the land isn't registered. The local council has stated it can't remove the barriers blocking off the sinkhole until property rights had been confirmed. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance designer. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has lived in the neighborhood in Redruth for about 10 years and actually 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 bakery and the council that he wouldn't get a parking fine.

"I had finally reached a point like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable small vehicle that was economical 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 always wanted to go."

The Incident and Consequences

Then came that knock on the door on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers turned up and secured the zone off. We all had to stay in the homes because we couldn't leave without going past the collapse. The highways people came out, erected the barrier up, and then they returned and placed a additional barrier up surrounding it as well."

It is believed the opening may be an unfortunate legacy of a historic local mine, a abandoned copper and tin mine.

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

A Potential Solution

An end may be in sight. The authorities has stated it will work with McKenzie to – temporarily – lift the barriers to allow the car to be recovered. He commented: "They are willing 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 car has been badly damaged and is likely to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their vehicle was swallowed by the Earth itself," McKenzie remarked.

Council Response

A representative from the local council expressed it sympathised with McKenzie. But it said: "This collapse did not happen on public property. We have made the area safe and advised the vehicle owner that we will arrange to temporarily remove the fence to allow him to recover the vehicle.

"As the land is unregistered, our barriers will remain in place until land ownership has been established, and we will persist to observe the vicinity to ensure public safety."