Crap Towns / Lincolnshire / Waddington
Waddington
10/100Crap Score
Known as Waddo.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 10. 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
Watch the skies.
Spy planes overhead and plane spotters at the fence. Waddo gives them very little else to look at.
Waddo is the RAF. Big grey surveillance jets go over, and a row of blokes with flasks and long lenses stand at the airfield fence to watch them. The village underneath is so quiet it's smug about it. Hardly any burglary, hardly any shoplifting, nobody nicking cars.
The jets are stuffed with the cleverest listening kit going, and 2.9% of homes in the village can't get superfast broadband. The sewers are less shy: storm overflows round here spill for nearly twice as long as the typical town's. Then the bypass dust settles on the windowsills and that's your lot.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Waddington's 67 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 67% of towns.
- Sewage spills67/100534 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband66/1007.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.1% across the North Kesteven council area
- Food hygiene54/1003.2% rated 0 to 2, of the 31 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution43/1005.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping32/1008.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Kesteven council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour15/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires14/1002.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain12/100114 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions9/1000.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson5/1003.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Spalding | 64 |
| 10 | Grantham | 53 |
| 11 | Stamford | 46 |
| 12 | Sleaford | 45 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.13 | Humberston and New Waltham | 32 |
| 14 | Barton-upon-Humber | 32 |
| 15 | Bourne | 15 |
| 16 | North Hykeham | 13 |
| – | Waddington | 10 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Waddington by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 31.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 59% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 144 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 211 per 10,000 people, 62.1x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs 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
- 11.38pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 2.9% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 5.8x the typical town's 0.5%
- 12.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 17% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,633 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 7% higher than the typical town's 1,532
North Kesteven council
- £2,338 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £54 less than the English average
- 21% of Lincolnshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 31% higher than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Waddington 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.