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

"I stepped outside expecting a minor dip under a tire 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 automobile had descended into a 10-foot wide opening, likely created by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a administrative "nightmare" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Main Problem: Unregistered Land

The complication is that the property isn't registered. The authorities has said it can't remove the barriers blocking off the sinkhole until property rights had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed designer. "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 too narrow to be useful so he started leaving his car outside a nearby bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the local authority that he would avoid receiving a ticket.

"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 save up to take my child on her dream trip to Japan someday. She's constantly dreamed to go."

The Event and Aftermath

Then came that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "My neighbour was quite panicked. The officers turned up and closed the zone off. We all had to stay in the houses because we couldn't leave without passing by the collapse. The road crew arrived, erected the barrier up, and then they came out and placed a second fence up surrounding it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be separated from his car for a short period. But that short time have now become weeks.

A Possible Resolution

An conclusion may be in sight. The authorities has said it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – remove the barriers to allow the car to be recovered. He said: "They are willing to work with my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a date and an acceptable way of getting it out that ensures no anybody at risk."

The vehicle has been badly damaged and is likely to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini met its end in style – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Authority Response

A spokesperson from the authorities said it felt sorry with McKenzie. But it said: "This collapse did not happen on council land. We have secured the location and informed the vehicle owner that we will arrange to lift the fence to allow him to retrieve the vehicle.

"As the land is unregistered, our barriers will stay up until property ownership has been established, and we will persist to monitor the surrounding area to ensure public safety."