By Mike McKay BBC North of England correspondent

UK Coal is to close of one of the biggest mining operations in Europe, at Selby in Yorkshire - a move which will leave more than 2,000 miners without a job.

BBC North of England correspondent Mike McKay found that the community facing an uncertain future was not surprised by the news.

Leafy suburbs, swish bungalows with cultured lawns and hanging baskets and there's not a winding engine in sight.

This is not the archetypal mining community of old. But the three pits, which form the Selby complex, confound all preconceptions.

After all, when they came on stream 10n years ago Riccall, Stillingfleet and Wistow, were the new face of mining.

You can't conceal the damage the closures will do over the next couple of years

Alison Seabrooke

Super pits offering substantial, if not super salaries.

"When I came here ten years ago, I was promised I had a job for life," said Mike Mattison, the ex-pitman standing resignedly outside the Wistow Colliery Medical Centre.

He retrained to become supervisor at the centre.

"Five years ago, this pit was making millions a week. Now it's losing millions a week."

But could the Selby pits be saved?

"Possibly, but the trouble is this government doesn't seem to have an energy policy," said Mr Mattison.

No surprise

All around the colliery grounds, reporters were wandering about talking freely to pitmen taking a break in the sunshine.

This was a rare facility from an industry which has been notoriously secretive with the media. The miners were anything but surprised at this news of the closure.

It had been clearly flagged up when the Department of Trade and Industry and UK Coal commissioned a report into the geological state of the pit.

Ex-miner Mike Mattison: Promised a job for life

The redundancy package of �43m will help - as will the �30m aid fund offered by the regeneration agency Yorkshire Forward.

But there is a massive economic gap which will hit not just 2,000 miners but 3,000 others across the Selby region according to one recent study.

The leader of Selby District Council, Dean Howson, said the pits represent around �70m of spending power across Selby.

"We estimate that 800 people in our district were directly employed in the industry," he said.

"Others are miners who transferred from other pit closures in south and west Yorkshire".

Mr Howson was one of the affected. He's an underground supervisor at Riccall.

Resistance

"Since Richard Budgen went from the business after a boardroom coup, we think the pits were taken over by the accountants," he said.

"Now we've got to concentrate on providing new job training for the men who want it. But they won't find jobs in this area to match the �30,000 - �40,000 a year jobs they had in the pits" he said.

The community centre had brought optimism and hope

A small but determined token of resistance, had already sprung up a couple of years ago in Riccall.

A group of miners, miners' wives and community volunteers campaigned and raised �1.5m in European and UK lottery funding to launch a multifunctional community centre.

Alison Seabrooke, development director of the Riccall Regen Centre, admits there was "something of the spirit of the old miners welfare about" the project.

Dark future

This brand new building on the outskirts of the village has become a magnet for groups right across Selby.

It provides nursery and youth facilities, a luncheon club for the elderly, sports amenities, including tennis courts and a retraining base including keyboard skills.

Everything about the place brings optimism and hope.

But Alison's own husband works at Riccall pit and a brother-in-law drives mining supplies from Nottingham to Selby every day.

"We've revived community spirit here," she said.

"But you can't conceal the damage the closures will do over the next couple of years."