Magna Carta Consultation Feedback - September 2011

Perceived Importance of Magna Carta

Only 23 people (2.5%) out of 936 selected the option that they don’t think Magna Carta is important in response to the question ‘Why do you think the Magna Carta heritage is important?’. This suggests that a very significant proportion of people believe it is important. The breakdown of the other results is shown in Figure 1 below. Please note respondees could select more than one option for this question.

Figure 1: Why the Magna Carta heritage is important

Current Visitor Expectations

The questionnaire asked people whether the Magna Carta Memorial alone is sufficient to meet visitor expectations in Runnymede. The breakdown of results can be seen below in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Does the Memorial alone meet visitor expectations in Runnymede?

Respondees could select as many answers as they wished. From 944 people, only 12.6% believed that things should be kept exactly as they are. This again suggests people feel more importance should be placed on Magna Carta in Runnymede than is found currently.

The results also show that the most popular response was ‘No – Because the Memorial provides little opportunity to learn about the event’. 506 people (53.6%) believed this. The second most popular response, ‘No - Because it doesn't reflect the importance of this historical event’, was selected by 340 people (36.0%). This was followed by 283 people (30.0%) selecting ‘No - Because there are limited facilities in close proximity to the Memorial’, then 225 people (23.8%) selecting ‘No - Because there is no form of tour guide’, and then 184 people (19.5%) selecting ‘No - Because there is a lack of coordination with nearby tourism to offer at least a full day out’. The last specific option, ‘Yes - But access to the Memorial needs to be improved’ was selected by 110 people (11.7%).
Finally, 15 people (1.6%) selected ‘Other’. ‘Other’ answers specifically stated were ‘No – currently more of an American celebration’, ‘No – too small and grotty’, ‘No – should be English’, ‘No – needs to be on the curriculum’ and ‘No – more advertising required’.

Interest in Visiting a Magna Carta Visitor/Interpretation Centre

People were asked in the questionnaire if they would be interested in visiting a Magna Carta Interpretation/Visitor Centre. The results are shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Interest in attending a Magna Carta Interpretation/Visitor Centre

934 people answered this question. The results showed strong support for an Interpretation/Visitors Centre because 775 people (83.0%) stated they would be interested in visiting one, against 159 people (17.0%) who stated they would not.

Interest in Receiving a Guided Tour

People were also asked within the questionnaire if they would be interested to receive a guided tour around the site in Runnymede. The results are shown below in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Interest in receiving a guided tour

933 people answered this question. The results showed that the majority of people would value receiving a guided tour (588 people – 63.0%), compared to 345 people (37.0%) who would not.

Support for Extra Visitors to Improve the Local Economy and Increase the Area’s Profile

People were asked within the questionnaire whether they support the benefits of extra visitors in Runnymede to improve the local economy and increase the area’s profile (if they lived within 10 miles of Egham). The results are shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Support for extra visitors to improve the local economy and increase the area’s profile

932 people answered this question. Excluding the people who lived more than 10 miles from Egham (181 people), the number of respondees was 751. Of these 751 people, the results showed that the majority of people do support the benefits (649 people - 86.4%), compared to 102 people (13.6%) who do not.

Desired Local Magna Carta Activities

As part of the questionnaire respondees were invited to suggest the types of Magna Carta activities they would like to see locally. Each respondee could provide as many suggestions as they wished. The suggestions were organised into appropriate categories.

The spread across the categories can be seen below in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Desired local Magna Carta activities

404 suggestions were provided. The most popular response was activities in a Visitor Centre (21% of the suggestions). The second most popular was ‘Guided Tours’ (19.1% of the suggestions), then ‘Re-enactments’ (18.8% of the suggestions), then ‘General Magna Carta events’ (18.1% of the suggestions), and then ‘Activities in schools’ (11.4% of the suggestions). Each of the remaining suggestions equated to less than 4.0% of the total suggestions as shown in Figure 5 above.

Magna Carta Volunteering Interest

Finally, the last question in the questionnaire asked people if they would be interested in volunteering as part of the project, either as an individual or with their club/organisation. The results are shown below in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Interest in volunteering on the project

932 people answered this question. The results showed that 178 people (19.1%) would like to volunteer. The clubs/organisations wanting to be involved are:

Again this overwhelming response to volunteering provides additional support that many people value the Magna Carta heritage enough to volunteer.