Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Sale
Sale
40/100Crap Score
594th crappest of 984 towns, and 63rd in Greater Manchester. 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 Sale? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Even the Sharks left Sale.
The rugby team plays in Salford. The water park's a gravel pit from building the motorway.
Ask anyone from Sale and it's Sale, Cheshire, said with a bit of a French accent. It's Trafford. The Sharks pushed off to Salford years ago and Swinton's rugby team plays here now instead. The water park's a hole they flooded after digging the gravel out for the M60. Washway Road doesn't move from first thing.
For all the posh vowels, food businesses are more than twice as likely as the typical town's to be rated 0 to 2 on hygiene, and the air's nearly half as bad again as the typical town's. There are 39 hairdressers and hardly a bookie, which tells you exactly what Sale thinks it is.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Sale's 88 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 88% of towns.
- Food hygiene88/1005.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 327 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution79/10012.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain75/100151 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills69/100579 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping39/1009.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Trafford council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires35/1004.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson27/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Serious road collisions23/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour20/10010.3 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Broadband18/1003.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.0% across the Trafford council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 58 | Cheadle | 50 |
| 59 | Standish | 49 |
| 60 | Hale | 43 |
| 61 | Romiley | 42 |
| 62 | Urmston | 42 |
| 63 | Sale | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.64 | Bramhall | 38 |
| 65 | Altrincham | 31 |
| 66 | Cheadle Hulme | 30 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Sale by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 69.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Better: 9% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 17 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 2.7 per 10,000 people, 21% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2021
What's left on the high street
- 21 pubs, 39 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 2 vape shops, 4 banks, 3 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 8.9% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (4 of 45) Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 1.6 per 100,000 people, 53% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 9 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.4 per 10,000 people, 13% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open; 2 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 29% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.43am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 22.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 46% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,425 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Trafford council
- £2,292 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £100 less than the English average
- 12% of Trafford council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 25% lower than England's 16%
- 9 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Sale 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.