Crap Towns / Somerset / Nailsea
Nailsea
1/100Crap Score
970th crappest of 984 towns, and 17th in Somerset. 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
The centre's grim.
Perfectly decent Bristol commuter town with a shopping precinct nobody likes.
Nailsea used to make glass and dig coal. Now it's a nice, quiet commuter town for Bristol with hardly any crime and a town centre that looks like it was designed in a hurry. The station's a long walk out of town, there's no nightlife and getting a bus to Weston is a day out in itself, and not a good one.
Even Elms Colliery's on the Heritage at Risk list, so it's not just the precinct that's falling apart. That's about the worst of it.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Nailsea's 67 for rain means it's crapper than 67% of towns.
- Rain67/100140 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband47/1006.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 10.6% across the North Somerset council area
- Deliberate fires42/1005.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping38/1009.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Somerset council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution28/1007.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene11/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 72 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson9/1004.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour9/1008.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions7/1001.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Minehead | 33 |
| 10 | Frome | 31 |
| 11 | Wellington | 27 |
| 12 | Street | 17 |
| 13 | Portishead | 16 |
| 14 | Wells | 15 |
| 15 | Burnham-on-Sea | 11 |
| 16 | Clevedon | 3 |
| 17 | Nailsea | 1 |
Nailsea by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 41.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 46% lower 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: 3.8 per 10,000 people, 12% higher than the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 9 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 7 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 6.3 per 100,000 people, 1.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 9 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 5.7 per 10,000 people, 3.6x the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 2.35am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 2.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 4.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 36.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.4x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,664 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 9% higher than the typical town's 1,532
North Somerset council
- £2,491 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £99 more than the English average
- 4% of North Somerset council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 75% lower than England's 16%
- 7 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Nailsea 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.