Crap Towns / Suffolk / Hadleigh
Hadleigh
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
Beat Tesco, got a vape shop
Lovely old wool town. Spent years fighting a Tesco and got a vape shop instead.
Hadleigh is a pretty old wool town with a timber-framed Guildhall, and it spent years fighting off a Tesco. It won. Now the High Street has a vape shop, 4 charity shops, 12 hairdressers and a Greggs, and the last bus goes at 7.03pm. Nothing actually bad happens here. The only thing anyone's fuming about is a one-way plan for the High Street. Must be nice.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Hadleigh's 92 for broadband means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Broadband92/10019.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 24.6% across the Babergh council area
- Sewage spills55/100336 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Serious road collisions46/1002.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution45/1007.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson29/1005.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene22/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 45 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires9/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping9/1004.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Babergh council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour7/1005.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain7/100112 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Sudbury | 30 |
| 3 | Ipswich | 15 |
| 4 | Haverhill | 11 |
| 5 | Newmarket | 9 |
| – | Hadleigh | 9 |
| 6 | Stowmarket | 7 |
| 7 | Felixstowe | 6 |
| 8 | Woodbridge | 4 |
| 9 | Bury St Edmunds | 3 |
Hadleigh by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 45.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 41% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 13 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 15.0 per 10,000 people, 4.4x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 12 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 banking hub opened here
- 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; 1 closed for good since 2010 Better: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.03pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.7% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 40% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 3.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 76% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,721 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 12% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Babergh council
- £2,342 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £50 less than the English average
- 22% of Suffolk County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 38% higher than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Hadleigh 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.