Crap Towns / Surrey / Horley
Horley
80/100Crap Score
199th crappest of 984 towns, and 3rd in Surrey. 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
Planes, and sod all else.
Holidaymakers dump their cars on your street and fly off. You stay here.
Horley sits right next to Gatwick and gets none of the holidays. The planes roar over all night, people leave their cars in residential streets while they're in Spain, and airport taxis wait on every corner. The town centre has nothing going on.
Then there's the rest of it. Fly-tipping in the council area runs at nearly three times the typical council's, the storm overflows nearby spilled for three and a half times as long as the typical town's, and 12.5% of the rated takeaways score 0 to 2. Only Staines and Redhill are crapper in Surrey. Welcome home.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Horley's 92 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Fly-tipping92/10032.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Reigate and Banstead council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene87/1007.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 100 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions83/1003.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills82/100947 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Air pollution80/10011.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband59/1008.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 12.0% across the Reigate and Banstead council area
- Rain41/100124 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour25/10011.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson23/1005.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires11/100
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Staines-upon-Thames | 93 |
| 2 | Redhill | 84 |
| 3 | Horley | 80 |
| 4 | Leatherhead | 79 |
| 5 | Byfleet | 78 |
| 6 | Chertsey | 72 |
| 7 | Addlestone | 67 |
| 8 | Egham | 67 |
| 9 | Reigate | 67 |
Horley by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 57.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 25% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1,144 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 423 per 10,000 people, 124.4x the typical town's 3.4
- 12 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 10 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 3 bookmakers, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 12.5% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 16) Worse: 3.1x the typical town's 4.0%
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.6 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.03am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 33% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,657 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 8% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Reigate and Banstead council
Have a crap-off
Horley 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.