Crap Towns / Somerset / Cheddar
Cheddar
52/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 52. 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
Cheddar. Smells of more than cheese.
Famous gorge, famous cheese. Lads revving their engines through the lot.
Cheddar's got the gorge, the caves and the cheese, and in summer every one of them has a queue. Lads rev their engines up the gorge to hear it echo and tourists stand in the road for selfies. The goats on the cliffs look down on the lot of them.
The overflows dump sewage for over 11 times the typical town's hours. There's no bus after 6.48pm and Sunday's a write-off, so once the coaches have gone you're stuck with the goats.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Cheddar's 98 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Sewage spills98/1003,114 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband88/10014.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 24.3% across the Somerset council area
- Serious road collisions77/1003.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain67/100139 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene60/1003.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 57 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour34/10012.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires24/1003.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson22/1005.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping19/1006.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Somerset council area, 2023-24 to 2024-25
- Air pollution16/1005.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bath | 66 |
| 2 | Bridgwater | 57 |
| – | Cheddar | 52 |
| 3 | Taunton | 52 |
| 4 | Keynsham | 51 |
| 5 | Weston-super-Mare | 51 |
| 6 | Midsomer Norton | 41 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.7 | Chard | 38 |
| 8 | Yeovil | 34 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Cheddar by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 53.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 30% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 50% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 2 charity shops on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 17.1 per 100,000 people, 5x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.4 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 2.4x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 6.48pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 32% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,565 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Somerset council
Have a crap-off
Cheddar 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.