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The initial sign Malcolm McKenzie had of his predicament was when a neighbor urgently banged on his front door and informed 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 walked out to check it out, I realized, oh, that truly is a proper hole," he stated.

His automobile had dropped into a 10-foot wide opening, possibly created by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days stuck in a administrative "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his car.

The Core Issue: Unregistered Land

The hitch is that the land has no registered owner. The local council has stated it can't remove the fences blocking off the hole until property rights had been confirmed. "It's quite a difficult situation," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance creative. "It's red tape everywhere."

McKenzie has lived in the area in Redruth for about 10 years and in fact has a parking space beside his house, but it is not wide enough to be useful so he started leaving his car outside a local bakery. He had checked 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 reliable 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 child on her aspirational journey to Japan one day. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Aftermath

Then arrived that loud rapping on Saturday 1 November. "The person next door was very alarmed. The officers arrived and secured the area off. We all had to remain in the houses because we can't get out without passing by the hole. The road crew came out, erected the barrier up, and then they returned and placed a second fence up surrounding it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be separated from 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 work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the fences to allow the Mini to be recovered. He commented: "They are willing to assist my insurance company's retrieval crew and try to arrange a day and an suitable way of getting it out that ensures no anybody at danger."

The car has been significantly harmed and is probably to be written off. "On the bright side I can say my Mini went out in style – not everyone can say their vehicle was eaten by the ground beneath them," McKenzie noted.

Authority Statement

A spokesperson from the local council said it sympathised with McKenzie. But it added: "The ground giving way did not occur on public property. We have made the area safe and advised the vehicle owner that we will arrange to lift the barrier to enable him to retrieve the car.

"As the land is unregistered, our barriers will remain in place until property ownership has been established, and we will continue to monitor the vicinity to guarantee public safety."