Crap Towns / Dorset / Gillingham
Gillingham
8/100Crap Score
902nd crappest of 984 towns, and 13th in Dorset. 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
Got something to say about Gillingham? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Not that Gillingham.
The Dorset one. Lots of new houses, fewer shops, and trolleys in the river.
This is the Gillingham in Dorset, with a hard G, and they get the hump if you say it wrong. They keep building houses with no doctors to go with them, the High Street shops keep shutting, and some idiot keeps lobbing trolleys and cones in the river.
The last bus is at 7.15pm and there's none on a Sunday, so the new estates aren't going anywhere either. Dorset charges £2,765 for a Band D home. The sewage spills are bad too. There's a Greggs. That's the highlight.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Gillingham's 88 for broadband means it's crapper than 88% of towns.
- Broadband88/10015.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 23.3% across the Dorset council area
- Sewage spills80/100872 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain62/100135 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions25/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour18/10010.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution16/1004.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene13/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 65 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson13/1004.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping8/1004.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Dorset council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires2/1001.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Christchurch | 22 |
| 7 | West Moors | 20 |
| 8 | Sherborne | 19 |
| 9 | Wimborne Minster | 19 |
| 10 | Corfe Mullen | 14 |
| 11 | Ferndown | 10 |
| 12 | Blandford Forum | 8 |
| 13 | Gillingham | 8 |
| 14 | Verwood | 2 |
Gillingham by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 37.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 51% 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: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 74% lower than the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 9 hairdressers, 3 charity shops, 2 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 9.1 per 100,000 people, 2.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.6 per 10,000 people, 2.3x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.15pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday 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%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,494 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Dorset council
Have a crap-off
Gillingham 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.