There was an interesting programme on R4 on Monday. It was called ‘Planning for Destruction: the D-villages of County Durham’.
Essentially it was about the counties plans for mining villages, mainly in the west, as the coal industry declined in the 50s, 60s & 70s. The villages were given categories A, B, C, and D. The latter stood for demolition. It caused a huge amount of social unrest and hardship. I have an excellent paper on the subject but can’t upload it for copyright reasons. But an abstract can be found here;

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713706876~db=all~order=page 

In the event, of the 121 villages in category D only three were completely demolished by 1969. Yet, each year some 200-400 acres of derelict land were being reclaimed in these villages, housing demolished and thousands of villagers moved to new housing estates.

The social aspects of mining history is an interesting and complicated subject. For instance as the mining industry in Cornwall collapsed, causing yet another migration, for a while more money entered the Cornish economy via South Africa than was generated at home.

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Never knew that.... wonder if this would have been the case in other coal areas.... certainly never heard of it around here.

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I have a feeling it only applied to Durham but it's possble similar plans existed.

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It's quite possible that certain areas would have been singled out for political reasons. The Durham miners where seen as a powerful voice within the coal industry post nationalisation. Another area that springs to mind is the South Wales pits.

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Actually I don’t think this was the case, although central government always plays a role. It was essentially up to the Durham County Planning. They wanted to facilitate easy access for workers to their workplaces and assumed people would move if provided with employment and new homes nearby. Larger existing centres of population, where mines were deemed to have a long-term future, were to be expanded. In addition, new centres should be developed, on which investment could be focused. Settlements experiencing major disinvestment could thus be left to decline.
It wasn’t helped in 1950, by the NCB when it produced its Plan for Coal, which estimated that 35000 mining jobs would be lost in Durham by 1961-5... The new figure was 19% of the existing workforce in east Durham and 33% in west Durham. These projections were influential in shaping the 1951 Durham County Development Plan, the statutory plan being prepared under the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. However, despite meetings with the Ministry of Fuel and Power and the NCB in 1950, the Board refused to give the County Council further details of production plans.
In the end the policy showed a lack of insight and a failure to explore the existing social networks of the villages. I don’t think this particular situation actually occurred elsewhere,

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I listened to the program too. It was fascinating especially as I had Google Maps open at the time and homed in on the villages/towns mentioned. I also opened up old-maps to compare what was and is. It was fascinating, made more so by linking street names mentioned by some of the interviewees.

This lead on to the Witton Park story and the website - The Village that refused to Die. http://www.daledaniel.fsnet.co.uk/ 

I'm not defending the planners (far from it) but it was interesting to note that in Witton Park's case the village was born out of iron making not coal mining directly which had been in decline in the area. I got on to my Mum about it and she said she knew that some of her relatives had come from Witton but was not really aware of the D village policy. I suppose you also have to remember that at the time (Mum's now 86) many people of her generation had been away at war and they saw such 'progress' as being part of the new beginning. The issue was also possibly clouded with the advent of the Nation Coal Board in 1947 and the plans mentioned by carnkie.
My first school Paddock Style, Philadelphia, no longer exists yet the rows of miners cottages opposite in Voltage Terrace are still there, as is 'The Power' (power station, Grade II listed) at the bottom of the terrace going down to the pit head where my Grandfather (Albert Purvis, Chainmaker) worked as one of the pit's blacksmiths, (the Lampton, Hetton and Joicey Colliery).

While at the time the policy may have been perceived to be draconian, time has for whatever the reasons, shown that change was inevitable and that the communities have still survived albeit in some cases fragmented by the clearance of the colliery areas which was the reason they were there in the first place. Industrial Parks with all manner of trades and products can never hope to achieve the unity created in a community whose sole purpose was the winning and distribution of a mineral whose use was the basis of so much and used by so many.

The coalfields of Durham were in decline just through progress, as were many others. What happened in the 80's was brutal (forget the politics side). I can remember my Grandmother, then in her late 90's, heartbroken seeing the end of what to her was a way of life, an era that will never return.