Crap Towns / Hampshire / South Hayling
South Hayling
5/100Crap Score
936th crappest of 984 towns, and 27th in Hampshire. 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
Hayling. Stuck on the bridge.
Windsurfing was born here. So was the queue for the bridge.
South Hayling is barely crap at all, which is a nuisance. Nice beach, low crime, and all 4 bathing waters rated Excellent. The only problem is getting there. The bridge is the only road on or off, so every summer the whole island queues on it. The new houses make it worse and the floods threaten to cut it off. Lovely, if you never leave.
The local yobs keep setting fire to things outdoors, at 1.6 times the typical town's rate, so the island's got its knobheads like everywhere else. The sea's eating the Hayling Billy trail. There are 9 public toilets, 3.7 times the typical town's per head, which is handy, because you'll be in that queue a while.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
South Hayling's 78 for broadband means it's crapper than 78% of towns.
- Broadband78/10017.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.2% across the Havant council area
- Deliberate fires68/1008.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping50/10010.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Havant council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Criminal damage and arson37/1006.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions21/1001.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution20/1006.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain11/100114 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour7/1007.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene6/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 97 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills6/1001.3 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | West End | 10 |
| 24 | Locks Heath | 9 |
| 25 | Alton | 9 |
| 26 | Hythe and Dibden Purlieu | 6 |
| 27 | South Hayling | 5 |
| 28 | Hedge End | 4 |
| 29 | Horndean | 3 |
| 30 | Chandler's Ford | 3 |
| 31 | Lee-on-the-Solent | 0 |
South Hayling by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 61.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 19% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 34 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 22.2 per 10,000 people, 6.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 of 4 bathing waters here or within 2 km rated Excellent in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 6 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 5 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 16) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 9 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 5.9 per 10,000 people, 3.7x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.09am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 27.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,747 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 14% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Havant council
- £2,320 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £72 less than the English average
- 8% of Hampshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 50% lower than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
South Hayling 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.