Crap Towns / West Midlands / Cradley Heath
Cradley Heath
77/100Crap Score
231st crappest of 984 towns, and 7th in the West Midlands. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Who boarded up the High Street?
Chainmaking town. High Street's boarded up and the fly-tippers are busy.
Cradley Heath made chains for ships all over the world, and its women chainmakers went on strike for a living wage and won. Now the High Street's lost the shops that lasted generations, and what's left is boarded up. Even the Workers' Institute got moved to a museum. Can't blame it.
Plenty of pubs, mind, so you can drink about it, and a hairdresser on every corner. Sandwell council logged 12,542 fly-tips in a year, more than three times the typical council's rate, and prosecuted nobody. Both pools have shut, the air's over the health guidelines on both counts, and robbery and blades are well above the typical town. They still boo Wolverhampton over the speedway, and the stadium's been gone for years.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Cradley Heath's 94 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 94% of towns.
- Fly-tipping94/10035.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Sandwell council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution87/10012.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions79/1003.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills76/100752 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson67/1008.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires58/1006.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain57/100132 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene32/1001.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 126 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour30/1008.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband9/1002.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.8% across the Sandwell council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Birmingham | 86 |
| 4 | Bloxwich | 84 |
| 5 | Brownhills | 82 |
| 6 | West Bromwich | 81 |
| 7 | Cradley Heath | 77 |
| 8 | Dudley | 76 |
| 9 | Willenhall | 74 |
| 10 | Rushall and Shelfield | 73 |
| 11 | Oldbury | 72 |
Cradley Heath by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 93.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 23% higher 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: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 85% 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
- 17 pubs, 21 hairdressers, 1 bookmaker, 4 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 32) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 5.3 per 100,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) About the same: 1.6 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open; 2 closed for good since 2010 Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.48pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Against the typical town's 0.5%
- 30.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,505 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Sandwell council
Have a crap-off
Cradley Heath 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.