Crap Towns / West Glamorgan / Pontardawe
Pontardawe
52/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 52. 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
Turn it down.
Ponty has a folk festival past and an arts centre. Also lads revving engines at closing time.
Pontardawe made tinplate and steel, then got famous for a folk festival. Now it's got an arts centre, a canal and people shouting and revving their cars after the pubs shut. The music goes on late.
The buses stop at 5.50pm, so whoever's revving outside your window at midnight lives here. There's rain on 181 days a year and the storm overflows go off for over 21 times the typical town's hours, so the Tawe's having a worse night than you are. Bring earplugs.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Pontardawe's 99 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Sewage spills99/1005,840 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain98/100181 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene80/1006.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 60 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband77/10011.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.8% across the Neath Port Talbot council area
- Serious road collisions57/1002.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires50/100
- Criminal damage and arson24/1005.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour23/10010.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping15/1005.6 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Neath Port Talbot council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution6/1004.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Port Talbot | 53 |
| – | Pontardawe | 52 |
| 2 | Swansea | 46 |
| 3 | Neath | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.4 | Baglan | 32 |
| 5 | Gorseinon | 25 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Pontardawe by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 69.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 9% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 7 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 12.6 per 10,000 people, 3.7x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 3 pubs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 11) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 18.1 per 100,000 people, 5.3x the typical town's 3.4
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 5.50pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Against the typical town's 0.5%
- 19.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 25% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,456 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Neath Port Talbot council
Have a crap-off
Pontardawe 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.