🔗 Share this article

The first indication the local man received of his situation was when a person living nearby loudly knocked on his front door and informed him his beloved Mini had plunged into a opening.

"I stepped outside anticipating a minor dip under a wheel or something like that. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that really is a proper hole," he explained.

His automobile had descended into a 10-foot wide opening, possibly caused by a mineshaft collapse, and McKenzie has endured 25 days stuck in a administrative "nightmare" trying to determine how to extricate his Mini.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the property isn't registered. The authorities has stated it can't remove the fences cordoning off the sinkhole until property rights had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a freelance creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the neighborhood 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 started leaving his car outside a local bakery. He had verified with both the shop and the council that he wouldn't get a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was getting somewhere, I had a reliable small vehicle that was economical and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could finally focus on trying to save up to take my child on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Aftermath

Then arrived that knock on the door on a Saturday in November. "My neighbour was very alarmed. The officers arrived and secured the area off. We all had to remain in the homes because we couldn't leave without passing by the collapse. The highways people came out, erected the fence up, and then they returned and placed a additional barrier up around it as well."

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

McKenzie believed he would be without his car for a short period. But days have now turned into weeks.

A Potential Resolution

An end may be approaching. The authorities has stated it will cooperate with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the barriers to allow the car to be removed. He commented: "They have agreed to work with my insurer's recovery team and try to arrange a date and an acceptable way of getting it out that ensures no anybody at risk."

The car 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 sympathised with McKenzie. But it said: "The ground giving way did not happen on council land. We have made the area safe and informed the vehicle owner that we will organize to temporarily remove the barrier to enable him to recover the vehicle.

"Since no one owns the land, our safety measures will stay up until property ownership has been established, and we will persist to monitor the vicinity to ensure public safety."