Crap Towns / Berkshire / Shinfield
Shinfield
4/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 4. 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
Shinfield. The houses keep coming.
Film studios beside a growing village. All that building and still no public pool.
Shinfield's got film studios, a university science park and the M4 running through the middle. Crime's low and nothing gets set on fire, annoyingly. The houses go up faster than the schools or doctors can cope with, and lorries keep getting lost down Cutbush Lane.
Everyone lives within 400 metres of a park or a swing, with four times the typical town's parks per head. There are 2 pubs and 1 Greggs, which per head is six times the typical town's Greggs. Hollywood's moved in and the big night out is a sausage roll.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Shinfield's 62 for air pollution means it's crapper than 62% of towns.
- Air pollution62/1009.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping42/1009.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wokingham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene36/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 19 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour32/1008.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires27/100
- Serious road collisions16/1001.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain14/100115 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson14/1004.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband11/1001.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.2% across the Wokingham council area
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Thatcham | 17 |
| 7 | Bracknell | 7 |
| 8 | Maidenhead | 6 |
| 9 | Wokingham | 5 |
| – | Shinfield | 4 |
| 10 | Caversham | 3 |
| 11 | Crowthorne | 2 |
| 12 | Sandhurst | 1 |
| 13 | Woodley | 1 |
Shinfield by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 61.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 4 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 7.4 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 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
- 11.37pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,600 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Wokingham council
- £2,498 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £106 more than the English average
- 20% of Wokingham council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 25% higher than England's 16%
- 15 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Shinfield 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.