Crap Towns / Oxfordshire / Faringdon
Faringdon
22/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 22. 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
Faringdon. They dye the pigeons.
There's a folly on the hill and the pigeons have been dyed. Nobody's sure why.
Faringdon's got a folly on a hill, a nice market square and a tradition of dyeing pigeons bright colours. Nobody knows why. There are pointless signs dotted round town as a joke, which is the most fun anyone's had here in years. Otherwise it's annoyingly decent.
It's got 3.2 times the typical town's parks per head, and some idiot keeps setting fire to things outdoors, with deliberate fires at half as many again as the typical town. The storm overflows spill more than most round here too. The pigeons are the least of it.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Faringdon's 82 for broadband means it's crapper than 82% of towns.
- Broadband82/10014.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 15.6% across the Vale of White Horse council area
- Sewage spills73/100681 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires67/1008.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene50/1002.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 40 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour41/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain39/100123 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson27/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution26/1005.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions10/1001.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping3/1003.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Vale of White Horse council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oxford | 62 |
| 2 | Banbury | 48 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Faringdon | 22 |
| 3 | Witney | 20 |
| 4 | Abingdon-on-Thames | 15 |
| 5 | Didcot | 13 |
| 6 | Bicester | 12 |
| 7 | Henley-on-Thames | 7 |
| 8 | Carterton | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Faringdon by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 63.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 17% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 141 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 163 per 10,000 people, 47.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2018
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 7 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 25% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.13am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 2.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 83% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,643 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 7% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Vale of White Horse council
- £2,577 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £185 more than the English average
- 20% of Oxfordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 25% higher than England's 16%
- 3 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Faringdon 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.