Crap Towns / Hampshire / Hindhead
Hindhead
1/100Crap Score
Known as Little Switzerland.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 1. 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
Hindhead. Very nice. Shut up.
They put the traffic in a tunnel and kept the view for themselves.
Hindhead put the A3 in a tunnel under the common, so it gets the Devil's Punch Bowl and the fresh air all to itself. They call it Little Switzerland, which is laying it on. Nothing goes wrong here. When the tunnel shuts, the whole A3 gets sent round the lanes, and that's the drama for the year.
It's got 1 pub, 1 hairdresser, 1 charity shop and 1 bank, so nobody can say it's overdone. The buses stop at 7.27pm. Over a fifth of premises can't get gigabit broadband, which is as close as Hindhead gets to hardship. Tough life.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Hindhead's 95 for broadband means it's crapper than 95% of towns.
- Broadband95/10021.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 28.9% across the Waverley council area
- Rain58/100132 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution30/1006.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene22/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 45 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions20/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping17/1005.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Waverley council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires10/1001.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson1/1002.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour1/1005.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Locks Heath | 9 |
| 25 | Alton | 9 |
| 26 | Hythe and Dibden Purlieu | 6 |
| 27 | South Hayling | 5 |
| 28 | Hedge End | 4 |
| 29 | Horndean | 3 |
| 30 | Chandler's Ford | 3 |
| – | Hindhead | 1 |
| 31 | Lee-on-the-Solent | 0 |
Hindhead by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 35.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 53% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 457 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 709 per 10,000 people, 208.5x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 1 pub, 1 hairdresser, 1 charity shop, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Grayshott (2015)
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.1 per 10,000 people, 1.9x the typical town's 1.6
- 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
- 7.27pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 31.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,627 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 6% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Waverley council
Have a crap-off
Hindhead 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.