Crap Towns / Tyne and Wear / Hetton-le-Hole
Hetton-le-Hole
72/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 72. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
The cottages moved to Beamish. Wise.
Vape shops, bookies, Greggs and pubs. The miners' cottages got moved to a museum.
Hetton built a pioneering railway, then had its miners' cottages carted off to Beamish, where people pay to look at them. What's left is vape shops, bookies, Greggs and pubs. The library's shut, the toilets need doing, the paths are overgrown and the old nursery's derelict. It's a hole.
Fires get started on purpose at twelve and a half times the typical town's rate, and the bins go up at about twenty-six times. Sunderland's fly-tipping is over three times the typical council's. Nobody shoplifts, mind. Not much left worth nicking.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Hetton-le-Hole's 99 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Deliberate fires99/10071.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping95/10035.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Sunderland council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Criminal damage and arson94/10013.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills66/100529 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour57/10016.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions52/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain48/100127 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene22/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 47 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution21/1006.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband19/1003.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.3% across the Sunderland council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Sunderland | 87 |
| 8 | Jarrow | 82 |
| 9 | Hebburn | 75 |
| 10 | Houghton-le-Spring | 73 |
| – | Hetton-le-Hole | 72 |
| 11 | Birtley | 69 |
| 12 | Longbenton | 61 |
| 13 | Washington | 57 |
| 14 | Whickham | 53 |
Hetton-le-Hole by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 81.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 6% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 6 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 6.7 per 10,000 people, 2x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Hetton Centre (2021)
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.2 per 10,000 people, 38% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 2.2 per 10,000 people, 3.1x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.56pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 13.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 15% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,528 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Sunderland council
Have a crap-off
Hetton-le-Hole 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.