Crap Towns / East Sussex / Stone Cross
Stone Cross
18/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 18. 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
Come and see the windmill. Or don't.
Stone Cross has a restored windmill and safe roads. Nothing else to report.
Stone Cross is a quiet bit near Eastbourne with a nicely restored tower windmill, the last of its type built in Sussex. Everyone lives within 400 metres of a park or a swing, nobody fly-tips and the burglars don't bother. There's 1 pub and 1 hairdresser.
For that, Wealden wants £2,728 for a Band D, well over England's average. The storm overflows round the place spilled for 2.8 times as long as the typical town's, and some knobhead keeps setting fires. That's genuinely all we've got. Sorry.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Stone Cross's 77 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 77% of towns.
- Sewage spills77/100767 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
- Broadband66/1003.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 24.7% across the Wealden council area
- Deliberate fires64/1008.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene45/100
- Rain36/100123 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution31/1006.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson26/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour25/10011.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions17/1001.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping6/1004.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wealden council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Bexhill-on-Sea | 54 |
| 6 | Brighton and Hove | 51 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.7 | Hailsham | 35 |
| 8 | Peacehaven | 30 |
| 9 | Polegate | 23 |
| 10 | Uckfield | 18 |
| – | Stone Cross | 18 |
| 11 | Crowborough | 9 |
| 12 | Seaford | 8 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Stone Cross by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 44.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 42% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 6 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 11.9 per 10,000 people, 3.5x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 1 pub, 1 hairdresser 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
- 10.50pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier 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%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,805 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 18% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Wealden council
- £2,728 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £336 more than the English average
- 18% of East Sussex County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Stone Cross 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.