Crap Towns / Gwent / Chepstow
Chepstow
59/100Crap Score
404th crappest of 984 towns, and 11th in Gwent. 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
Have fun at Highbeech
A castle on the Wye, a racecourse and a roundabout that'll ruin your day.
Chepstow's got a castle, a racecourse and the Highbeech roundabout, which is where you'll spend most of your visit. They've wanted a bypass for decades. Still no bypass.
The shops are vape, charity, Greggs and pubs, with nearly six times the typical town's vape shops per head. The Wye gets the sewage, with the storm overflows going off for over nine times the typical town's hours. The last bus home is at 10.21pm, so you can't even sit at Highbeech on the bus after dark. Nice castle, though.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Chepstow's 96 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 96% of towns.
- Sewage spills96/1002,570 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband75/1008.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 21.0% across the Monmouthshire council area
- Serious road collisions74/1003.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain71/100147 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour54/10015.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson50/1007.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires50/100
- Fly-tipping23/1006.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Monmouthshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene23/1001.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 99 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution20/1006.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Abertillery | 95 |
| 6 | Blackwood | 92 |
| 7 | Caerphilly | 88 |
| 8 | Pontypool | 86 |
| 9 | Ystrad Mynach | 85 |
| 10 | Cwmbrân | 75 |
| 11 | Chepstow | 59 |
| 12 | Abergavenny | 57 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.13 | Monmouth | 31 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Chepstow by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 82.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 8% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 40 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 33.5 per 10,000 people, 9.9x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 14 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 2 vape shops, 4 banks, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 16.8 per 100,000 people, 4.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 5.9 per 10,000 people, 3.7x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 10.21pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 12.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 21% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,664 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 9% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Monmouthshire council
Have a crap-off
Chepstow 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.