Crap Towns / West Midlands / Royal Sutton Coldfield
Royal Sutton Coldfield
36/100Crap Score
626th crappest of 984 towns, and 22nd 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
Got something to say about Royal Sutton Coldfield? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Not Brum. Don't say Brum.
Insists on the Royal, insists it's not Birmingham, and the town centre's going to pot.
Sutton Coldfield wants you to say the Royal and wants you to know it isn't Birmingham, even though Birmingham runs the place, empties its bins and recycles about a fifth of what's in them. The centre's losing shops and everyone prefers Mere Green anyway. Four Oaks, of all places, has made the Heritage at Risk register. That'll have gone down well.
Sutton Park is enormous, and over half the town still lives more than 400 metres from a park or a swing. For somewhere this up itself the food's a gamble: 7 of the 45 rated takeaways score 0 to 2, 3.9 times the typical town's share. The cars get nicked or broken into far more than most, too. Nothing royal about that.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Royal Sutton Coldfield's 88 for air pollution means it's crapper than 88% of towns.
- Air pollution88/10012.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene87/1004.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 535 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping84/10017.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Birmingham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain55/100131 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband33/1006.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.0% across the Birmingham council area
- Serious road collisions30/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills18/10033.7 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson16/1004.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour12/1005.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires4/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 25 | Solihull | 30 |
| 26 | Sedgley | 24 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Royal Sutton Coldfield by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 67.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 11% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 249 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 26.7 per 10,000 people, 7.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 36 pubs, 77 hairdressers, 22 charity shops, 8 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 12 banks, 3 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 15.6% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (7 of 45) Worse: 3.9x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 1.1 per 100,000 people, 68% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.7 per 10,000 people, 56% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 5 public swimming pools open; 3 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 29% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.29am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 52.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 3.4x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,508 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Birmingham council
- £2,363 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £29 less than the English average
- 3% of Birmingham council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 81% lower than England's 16%
- 113 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Royal Sutton Coldfield 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.