Crap Towns / Somerset / Paulton
Paulton
39/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 39. 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
Paulton. They played Norwich once.
An old mining village whose big day was a cup tie on the telly.
Paulton's finest hour was Paulton Rovers playing Norwich in the FA Cup on the telly. Since then it's been houses. They built loads on the old printworks and promised community facilities that never showed up. The school run blocks the roads.
It's annoyingly decent apart from two things. The water company lets sewage out for over ten times as long as in the typical town. And 12% of food places get 0 to 2 from the hygiene inspectors, five times the typical town's share.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Paulton's 98 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Sewage spills98/1002,912 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband94/10024.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 20.7% across the Bath and North East Somerset council area
- Food hygiene83/10012.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 25 food businesses with a rating
- Rain68/100141 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping60/10011.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bath and North East Somerset council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires36/1004.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution17/1005.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions6/1000.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson3/1003.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour2/1006.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Taunton | 52 |
| 4 | Keynsham | 51 |
| 5 | Weston-super-Mare | 51 |
| 6 | Midsomer Norton | 41 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Paulton | 39 |
| 7 | Chard | 38 |
| 8 | Yeovil | 34 |
| 9 | Minehead | 33 |
| 10 | Frome | 31 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Paulton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 37.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 51% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 28 reports of abandoned vehicles on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 43.0 per 10,000 people, 47.8x the typical town's 0.9
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 3 hairdressers on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.02am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 19.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 28% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,587 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Bath and North East Somerset council
- £2,383 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £9 less than the English average
- 24% of Bath and North East Somerset council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 1.5x England's 16%
- 9 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Paulton 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.