Crap Towns / Berkshire / Crowthorne
Crowthorne
2/100Crap Score
966th crappest of 984 towns, and 11th in Berkshire. 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
Crowthorne. Safe. Dull. Safe and dull.
They do road safety research here. That tells you all you need to know.
Crowthorne is where they test road safety, which tells you how exciting it is. No crime to speak of, barely a crash, and the big moans are the mini roundabouts clogging the High Street, delivery vans parking wherever they like and kids riding bikes round the park. It's very nice. You'll be bored out of your skull.
Nearly half the town lives over 400 metres from a park or a swing, so the kids on bikes have done well to find one. There are 11 hairdressers and 3 pubs. Everyone in Crowthorne looks very neat and nobody's had a drink.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Crowthorne's 61 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 61% of towns.
- Deliberate fires61/100
- Air pollution52/1008.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene47/1002.2% rated 0 to 2, of the 46 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills37/100146 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband21/1005.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 2.8% across the Bracknell Forest council area
- Rain21/100118 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping10/1004.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bracknell Forest council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour10/1005.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson2/1002.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions0/1000.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Windsor | 21 |
| 6 | Thatcham | 17 |
| 7 | Bracknell | 7 |
| 8 | Maidenhead | 6 |
| 9 | Wokingham | 5 |
| 10 | Caversham | 3 |
| 11 | Crowthorne | 2 |
| 12 | Sandhurst | 1 |
| 13 | Woodley | 1 |
Crowthorne by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 42.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 44% lower 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: 26.3 per 10,000 people, 7.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 3 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 2 charity shops on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 19% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.18pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 3.2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 47.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 3.1x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,625 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 6% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Bracknell Forest council
- £2,265 Band D council tax (2026-27) Better: £127 less than the English average
- 16% of Bracknell Forest council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) About the same: About the same as England's 16%
- 10 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Crowthorne 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.