FORMER MP Stan Newens is the new chairman of the working party putting together plans to improve the local history library in Tower Hamlets. Historian Mr Newens who grew up in Bethnal Green served as a Labour MP in Epping from 1964 to 1970 and in Harlow f

FORMER MP Stan Newens is the new chairman of the working party putting together plans to improve the local history library in Tower Hamlets.

Historian Mr Newens who grew up in Bethnal Green served as a Labour MP in Epping from 1964 to 1970 and in Harlow from 1974 to 1983 and became an MEP the following year until 1999.

Mr Newens was a supporter of the campaign to save Bancroft Road local history library in Mile End.

He said: "I'm looking forward to working with the group to bring the library into a better condition and create recognition of its importance."

Tower Hamlets council decided not to sell off the building to the neighbouring Queen Mary College which would have forced it to find a new home for its respected archive collection.

Instead the council has agreed to invest in much needed work on the building and to developing the archives.

Last year Mr Newens brought out a study of author and journalist Arthur Morrison whose novel A Child of the Jago fictionalised life in a Victorian Bethnal Green slum.