UNTIL the early 1990s, all of east Durham's industrial, employment and economic eggs were firmly in the basket of King Coal.

For generations, fathers and sons had rarely looked further than the pits for work, their families were housed in the endless colliery rows and the mining welfare association provided their leisure.

But in October 1992, the Tories' then Trade and Industry Secretary, Michael Heseltine, called time on the nation's coalfields - and closed every remaining pit in east Durham, spelling disaster.

The coastal community had been founded on the back of the coal industry and in the chaos which followed the industry's brutal shut down, communities floundered in the desperate aftermath. Initially cushioned by redundancy payments, the older miners bided their time, but for young men with families to provide for, the only immediate help came in the limp-handed offerings of British Coal Enterprise.

The difficulties seemed insurmountable for the pitmen, who saw their weekly mining wages of £300 replaced with short-term employment offering as little as £60 a week.

It was clear that the only real hope lay with local authorities which, along with the rest of the country, had been taken by surprise by the extent and swiftness of the pit closures.

A year earlier, however, with some foresight, Easington District Council and Durham County Council joined forces and took the innovative step forward in forming a multi-agency partnership aimed at addressing the problems facing east Durham.

The district's now chief executive, Paul Wilding, who was with the authority in 1992, recalls: "Although we had set new wheels in motion, we simply were not expecting the all-out pit closures and our first priority was to look at securing new jobs."

But the colliery closures, while having a massive impact on jobs, quickly created further problems, with pit houses being sold off at the same time as local authority's housing budgets were pared to the bone. The knock-on effect was immense, the breakdown of families, health suffering and an increase in crime as youngsters saw their futures torn away.

Former miner Robin Todd, a member of the district council since 1974, recognised the difficulties ahead: "From a community perspective everything was intertwined with mining."

Council leader Alan Napier, an electrician at Murton pit at the time of the closures revealed the impact. "Of all those aged over 35 who had worked more than 20 years in the pit, 88 per cent were unable to find employment which matched their wage as a miner, with 95 per cent never fitting into any new work," he said.

And as redundancy money began to dwindle, so did the fortunes of village economies.

Young families left to seek a future elsewhere. But those who stayed behind grew to accept that to make ends meet more women would need to work.

But many female workers were destined to suffer the same fate as their men folk, when just a few years later the textile industry also collapsed in east Durham as Dewhirsts and Claremont Garments shut up shop.

At the same time, East Durham Task Force concentrated on bringing together senior representatives of key organisations to establish and understand the scale of the problems in east Durham and why special attention was needed.

Amid the bleakness, some economic lights began to shine particularly at Murton where the vast site of the colliery at Dalton Flatts was levelled and earmarked for a large retail development with the promise of more than 1,000 jobs.

A breakthrough came in 1995 when, despite fierce resistance from the Government, Easington won Enterprise Zone status.

The task force's overall vision was "to create a sustainable future for east Durham with new jobs to replace those lost in traditional industries, a greatly improved environment and a revived community spirit, thereby enabling the area to become a better place to live, work and visit".

Through the task force, the council's aims were ambitious and included the creation of a minimum of 10,000 jobs, the development of a first class road system, the clean up of the coastline, the reclamation of derelict colliery land, and encouraging more young people to stay on at school after 16.

John Smith, head of economic development, summed up the reasons for hope: "There is growing confidence in terms of the many new housing developments with homes being snapped up as soon as they go on the market and there is undoubtedly a renewed confidence in the whole future of the area."

But unemployment still remains high and the population is still falling in the district, which has been officially categorised as the fourth most deprived area in the country.

Recent census population figures revealed that, of 100,500 people living in the Easington district in 1981, 6,600 were no longer living there 20 years later.

Professor Ray Hudson of Durham University prophesied in 1992 that high unemployment would be a permanent feature of life in east Durham and remains convinced today.

"Here we are ten years on," he said, " they have had some more industry but we have firms laying people off, other industries are struggling and there is not much of a dynamic manufacturing base in east Durham.

"The East Durhham Task Force was set up and it certainly did play a role in bringing jobs but the economic and social problems remain.

"There has been a significant decline in population and that, in some ways, is the starkest indicator that there just isn't the work around.

"It's difficult to imagine east Durham will be turned around in the foreseeable future - it's difficult to see where alternative jobs are going to come from."

How the new start was made

The extensive raft of measures introduced to regenerate east Durham following the closure of its coalfields a decade ago include:

* The establishment of six Enterprise Zones

* The development of Bracken Hill Business Park, bringing 4,000 new jobs.

* The relocation of Seaham Harbour Dock Company

* The redevelopment of Seaham town centre

* The redevelopment of Peterlee town centre

* The transformation and current development of Dalton Flatts into a giant retail park

* The £10m Turning the Tide project cleaning up the coastline

* The implementation of a rolling programme of settlement renewal in villages across the district.

* The establishment of two Education Action Zones

* The introduction of three Sure Start schemes.