🔗 Share this article

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

"I went out expecting a minor dip under a tire or something similar. But when I went out to check it out, I realized, oh, that really is a proper hole," he explained.

His vehicle had descended into a 10-foot wide gap, likely caused by a collapsed mine shaft, and McKenzie has spent 25 days caught in a bureaucratic "difficult situation" trying to determine how to extricate his Mini.

The Core Problem: Unregistered Property

The hitch is that the land has no registered owner. The authorities has stated it won't take down the fences blocking off the sinkhole until land ownership had been established. "It's a bit of a nightmare," said McKenzie, 36, a self-employed creative. "There's bureaucracy at every turn."

McKenzie has resided in the area in Redruth for about a decade and in fact has a designated spot beside his house, but it is too narrow to be useful so he began parking outside a local bakery. He had checked with both the bakery and the council that he would avoid receiving a parking fine.

"I'd finally felt like I was making progress, I had a reliable little car that was fuel-efficient and easy to keep on the road. It signified I could at last focus on trying to put money aside to take my daughter on her aspirational journey to Japan someday. She's always wanted to go."

The Event and Consequences

Then came that loud rapping on a Saturday in November. "My neighbour was quite panicked. The officers turned up and closed the area off. We all had to remain in the houses because we can't get out without going past the hole. The highways people came out, put the barrier up, and then they returned and put a second fence up surrounding it as well."

It is thought the opening may be an unlucky legacy of a historic local mine, a disused copper and tin mine.

McKenzie believed he would be separated from his car for a few days. But that short time have now turned into weeks.

A Possible Solution

An end may be in sight. The authorities has stated it will work with McKenzie to – briefly – lift the fences to allow the car to be removed. He commented: "They are willing to work with my insurer's retrieval crew and try to schedule a date and an suitable way of getting it out that ensures no anybody at danger."

The car has been badly damaged and is probably to be written off. "At least I can say my Mini went out in a memorable way – not everyone can claim their vehicle was eaten by the Earth itself," McKenzie noted.

Council Statement

A spokesperson from the authorities expressed it sympathised with McKenzie. But it added: "The ground giving way did not happen on public property. We have secured the location and informed the car owner that we will organize to lift the fence to allow him to recover the car.

"Since no one owns the land, our barriers will remain in place until land ownership has been determined, and we will continue to monitor the vicinity to ensure public safety."