Crap Towns / West Midlands / Walsall
Walsall
92/100Crap Score
80th crappest of 984 towns, and the crappest in the West Midlands. Higher scores are crapper.
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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
Meet by the hippo.
Walsall made saddles. Now its best-known landmark is a concrete hippo.
Walsall made the saddles and the bridles, and the football club are still the Saddlers. These days the big landmark is a concrete hippo, and nobody can tell you why it's there. Everyone meets by it anyway, because what else are you going to meet by. Park Street is To Let signs, the Old Square is on its last legs and the Leather Museum got packed up and moved.
Then there's the food. 10.4% of places with a hygiene rating score 0 to 2, over four times the typical town. Wash it down with the air, which has nearly twice the typical town's nitrogen dioxide in it. The tipper-lorry fly-tips alone cost £445,900 to clear in a year. Prosecutions: none.
Crime comes in at 1.7 times the typical town's. Wednesbury scores nearly as crap and Bloxwich isn't far behind, so nobody round here gets to look down on anybody. They'll all still meet you by the hippo.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Walsall's 99 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Food hygiene99/10010.4% rated 0 to 2, of the 517 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution97/10015.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 8.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson81/1009.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping77/10017.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Walsall council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires77/10011.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband66/10013.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.8% across the Walsall council area
- Anti-social behaviour65/10011.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions63/1002.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain57/100132 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills34/100124 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walsall | 92 |
| 2 | Wednesbury | 90 |
| 3 | Birmingham | 86 |
| 4 | Bloxwich | 84 |
| 5 | Brownhills | 82 |
| 6 | West Bromwich | 81 |
| 7 | Cradley Heath | 77 |
| 8 | Dudley | 76 |
| 9 | Willenhall | 74 |
Walsall by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 133 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 1.7x 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 Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 76% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 6 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 36 pubs, 29 hairdressers, 5 charity shops, 7 bookmakers, 5 vape shops, 11 banks, 4 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 14.9% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (11 of 74) Worse: 3.7x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: South Walsall Library (2017)
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 75% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 6 public swimming pools open; 1 closed for good since 2010 Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 5 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.36am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later 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%
- 29.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.9x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,451 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 5% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Walsall council
Have a crap-off
Walsall 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.