The dispute started on 12 March 1984 and the divisions it caused still run deep in many communities.

But UDM president Neil Greatrex told BBC News on Friday: "It's not going to help families that are still split even 20 years on.

"And it could escalate into violence again where people want to do the marches and suchlike."

Family threatened

He added: "I think the time has come now, whether we like it or not - and whether I like it or not - to let the past be the past and for people to move on into the future."

The UDM was formed to "break" the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike of 1984, with its members crossing NUM picket lines.

In an earlier interview with BBC News Online, Neil Greatrex, who is based in Nottinghamshire said: "The reason that Nottinghamshire didn't go on strike was there was never a national ballot."

He told how his wife and 10-year-old daughter were threatened by striking miners.