Billingshurst

It's a village. Shut up, it's a village.

Twinned with a temporary traffic light

30/100Crap Score

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 30. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

Have your say

Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

See the race

The public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.

Letters from the locals

Got something to say about Billingshurst? Write in.

Billingshurst. It's a town, mate.

Big as a town, swears it's a village, and gets another estate every week.

Billy calls itself a village. It's got a station, a High Street and a new estate going up every time you blink, so it's mud on the roads, temporary lights everywhere and no chance of a doctor's appointment. It's a town. Somebody tell it.

Whatever it is, it shuts at teatime. The buses stop at 6.37pm and there isn't one on a Sunday. The old village centre has made the Heritage at Risk register. Another estate should sort that. The storm overflows spill for 2.5 times as long as the typical town's, so the new lot have that to look forward to as well.

The editor, stuck at the temporary lights

What the score is made of

Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.

Billingshurst's 93 for broadband means it's crapper than 93% of towns.

Broadband93/10020.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 23.7% across the Horsham council area
Sewage spills74/100700 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
Rain40/100124 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
Fly-tipping39/1009.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Horsham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
Anti-social behaviour37/10013.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Criminal damage and arson30/1005.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Serious road collisions29/1001.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
Food hygiene28/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 33 food businesses with a rating
Deliberate fires24/100
Air pollution24/1005.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.3 of fine particles, 2024 average

**Your patch: West Sussex**Towns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
Pos	Town	National	Score
11	Haywards Heath	616th	37
12	Burgess Hill	629th	36
13	Horsham	647th	34
14	Lancing and Sompting	690th	30
–	Billingshurst	–	30
15	Hassocks and Hurstpierpoint	727th	26
16	Selsey	827th	16
17	Rustington	833rd	15
18	Southwater	916th	7

Billingshurst by numbers

Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.

Crime, muck and dodgy water

What's left on the high street

Getting about, getting online, getting rained on

Horsham council

Have a crap-off

Billingshurst against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.

Against

BillingshurstCrap Score 30

SouthwaterCrap Score 7

Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.