Crap Towns / Isle of Wight / Ventnor
Ventnor
24/100Crap Score
Calls itself the English Mediterranean.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 24. 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 Ventnor? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Where's the road gone this time?
Ventnor has its own sunny weather and keeps losing its roads down the hill.
Ventnor is a steep little seaside town on the Isle of Wight with its own warm weather, a botanic garden and a lot of charity shops and pubs. The roads keep slipping down the hill, so you're forever on a diversion, the ferry to the mainland costs a fortune and teenagers have nothing to do. Locals like that it's weird.
It gets 1,974 hours of sunshine a year, the air has half the typical town's nitrogen dioxide, and there are nearly three times the typical town's pubs per head, so the Mayfair by the Sea lot can sit outside one and watch the road go. No public pool. You've got the sea.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ventnor's 85 for broadband means it's crapper than 85% of towns.
- Broadband85/10017.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 13.0% across the Isle of Wight council area
- Serious road collisions66/1003.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson45/1006.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires44/1005.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Sewage spills41/100182 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
- Food hygiene33/1001.4% rated 0 to 2, of the 74 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour25/10011.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping20/1006.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Isle of Wight council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain18/100116 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution8/1004.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newport | 65 |
| 2 | Sandown | 65 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.3 | Ryde | 37 |
| – | Ventnor | 24 |
| 4 | Cowes | 20 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Ventnor by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 79.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 76.2
- 142 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 255 per 10,000 people, 75x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2019
- Excellent Ventnor's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 7 hairdressers, 3 charity shops on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 5 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 9.0 per 10,000 people, 5.6x the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.34am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.9% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 3.8x the typical town's 0.5%
- 16.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space About the same: About the same as the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,974 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 29% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Isle of Wight council
Have a crap-off
Ventnor 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.