Crap Towns / West Midlands / Rowley Regis
Rowley Regis
41/100Crap Score
584th crappest of 984 towns, and 20th in the West Midlands. 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
Great view of the fly-tipping.
The Rowley Hills look out over the Black Country. Some bugger's dumped a fridge on them.
Rowley Regis is built up the side of the Rowley Hills, and the view over the Black Country is cracking. Then you look down and some bugger's dumped a fridge in the Quacks, the old quarries, and lads are tearing round them on scramblers. Outsiders say Rowley wrong, and nobody, local or not, knows where Rowley stops and Blackheath starts. Neither of them's tidy.
Being up a hill doesn't get you clean air either: nitrogen dioxide is 1.6 times the typical town's. It rains on 138 days a year, there's one public toilet for the whole town and hardly any pubs to nip into instead. The anti-social lot are quieter than most, mind. They're all out on the scramblers.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Rowley Regis's 94 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 94% of towns.
- Fly-tipping94/10035.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Sandwell council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution92/10013.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain65/100138 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires63/1007.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions48/1002.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills35/100129 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson28/1005.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene24/1001.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 96 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour10/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband2/1000.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.8% across the Sandwell council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Pelsall | 65 |
| 17 | Wolverhampton | 58 |
| 18 | Coventry | 57 |
| 19 | Brierley Hill | 56 |
| 20 | Rowley Regis | 41 |
| 21 | Stourbridge | 41 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.22 | Royal Sutton Coldfield | 36 |
| 23 | Aldridge | 36 |
| 24 | Coseley | 35 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Rowley Regis by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 66.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 13% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.3 per 10,000 people, 73% lower than the typical town's 1.1
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 9 hairdressers, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 25) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.3 per 10,000 people, 81% 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
- 12.48am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 30% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,474 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Sandwell council
Have a crap-off
Rowley Regis 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.