Crap Towns / Oxfordshire / Grove
Grove
9/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 9. 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
Cement mixers, no station
Grove keeps building houses on the old airfield. Nobody built a station.
Grove's a village they won't stop building houses on. The old airfield is new estates now, Mably Way is cement mixers all day, and the doctors haven't caught up. No railway station. Give it a few more years and it'll just be a bit of Wantage.
Hardly any crime, mind. Nobody can get out to commit any. The storm overflows round it spilled for more than twice as long as the typical town's, and they're still plumbing in more bathrooms on the airfield. There are 2 pubs for the lot of them.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Grove's 68 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 68% of towns.
- Sewage spills68/100567 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires64/1008.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband50/1004.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 15.6% across the Vale of White Horse council area
- Food hygiene37/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 18 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour36/1008.6 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
- Rain22/100118 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson12/1004.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions6/1000.8 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Witney | 20 |
| 4 | Abingdon-on-Thames | 15 |
| 5 | Didcot | 13 |
| 6 | Bicester | 12 |
| – | Grove | 9 |
| 7 | Henley-on-Thames | 7 |
| 8 | Carterton | 5 |
| 9 | Wantage | 5 |
| 10 | Thame | 5 |
Grove by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 52.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 31% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 287 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 361 per 10,000 people, 515.7x the typical town's 0.7
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2020
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 4 hairdressers, 2 charity shops on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.46am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 11.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 23% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,602 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as 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
Grove 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.