Crap Towns / Oxfordshire / Banbury
Banbury
48/100Crap Score
512th crappest of 984 towns, and 2nd in Oxfordshire. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
See the raceThe public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.
Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Banbury. Nice cakes. Empty shops.
The whole town smells of coffee. It's the best thing about it and you can't drink it.
Banbury smells of coffee from the factory. That's the highlight. The town centre's mostly empty, and ask for directions and they'll tell you to turn left where Woolworths was. Woolworths shut years ago. So did most of the rest.
There's the cross from the nursery rhyme and a statue of the fine lady on her white horse, and she's the only one in town riding anything nice. Somebody keeps setting the bins alight, with deliberate fires at one and a half times the typical town's rate. The new shops are vape shops, nearly three times the typical town's per head.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Banbury's 68 for broadband means it's crapper than 68% of towns.
- Broadband68/10011.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 11.2% across the Cherwell council area
- Deliberate fires68/1008.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson66/1008.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills62/100458 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour59/10011.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene55/1002.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 298 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution50/1007.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions32/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain27/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping25/1007.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Cherwell council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oxford | 62 |
| 2 | Banbury | 48 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.3 | Witney | 20 |
| 4 | Abingdon-on-Thames | 15 |
| 5 | Didcot | 13 |
| 6 | Bicester | 12 |
| 7 | Henley-on-Thames | 7 |
| 8 | Carterton | 5 |
| 9 | Wantage | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Banbury by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 95.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 25% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 1,853 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 356 per 10,000 people, 104.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 5 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 26 pubs, 40 hairdressers, 13 charity shops, 6 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 10 banks, 3 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 5.5% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (3 of 55) Worse: 38% higher than the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 1.9 per 100,000 people, 44% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 6 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 25% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 14% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 3 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.08am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 3.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 79% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,531 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Cherwell council
- £2,583 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £191 more than the English average
- 20% of Oxfordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 25% higher than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Banbury against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.
- ?Fly-tippingper 1,000, council area?
- ?Anti-social behaviourper 1,000 people?
- ?Serious road crashesper 10,000 people?
- ?Sewage spillshours per 10,000 people?
- ?Food hygienerated poor?
- ?Criminal damageper 1,000 people?
- ?Dirty airµg/m³?
- ?No gigabitof premises can't get it?
- ?Deliberate firesper 10,000 people?
- ?Raindays a year?
Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.