Crap Towns / East Sussex / Peacehaven
Peacehaven
30/100Crap Score
691st crappest of 984 towns, and 8th in East Sussex. 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
Sod all to do. No train out.
Streets in a grid on a clifftop, no station, and nowhere to do the big shop.
Peacehaven got its name from a newspaper competition and its streets from a ruler. No railway station, the supermarket's gone and nobody knows what's replacing it, and getting into Brighton along the coast road takes forever. The bad crashes happen at 1.8 times the typical town's rate.
There are 2 pubs, no public pool and hardly any park, and Lewes council charges £2,756 for a Band D, well over England's average. It's got the Greenwich Meridian and some cliffs. That's your nightlife.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Peacehaven's 90 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 90% of towns.
- Serious road collisions90/1004.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband84/10010.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 25.6% across the Lewes council area
- Food hygiene47/1002.2% rated 0 to 2, of the 45 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour47/10015.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires37/1004.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson34/1005.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain29/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution25/1005.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping7/1004.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Lewes council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Eastbourne | 66 |
| 5 | Bexhill-on-Sea | 54 |
| 6 | Brighton and Hove | 51 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.7 | Hailsham | 35 |
| 8 | Peacehaven | 30 |
| 9 | Polegate | 23 |
| 10 | Uckfield | 18 |
| 11 | Crowborough | 9 |
| 12 | Seaford | 8 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Peacehaven by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 54.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 29% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 41 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 26.1 per 10,000 people, 7.7x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 19% lower than 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
- 12.42am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.8% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 21.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 39% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,796 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 17% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Lewes council
- £2,756 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £364 more than the English average
- 18% of East Sussex County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- 3 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Peacehaven 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.