Crap Towns / Oxfordshire / Wantage
Wantage
5/100Crap Score
932nd crappest of 984 towns, and 9th in Oxfordshire. 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
There was a tram once.
Wantage used to have a tramway. Now it has no station, and it won't shut up about it.
Wantage is a nice market town on the edge of the Downs, with clean rivers and safe roads. It's got a statue in the square, a museum and a lot of charity shops, over four times the typical town's per head. There's no railway station. There was a tram once, and they've never got over it.
The local firebugs keep setting the bins alight, though. The deliberate fires come in at twice the typical town's rate, mostly bins and rubbish. They keep building houses, and they keep arguing about parking in the square.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Wantage's 75 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 75% of towns.
- Deliberate fires75/10011.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband73/10010.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 15.6% across the Vale of White Horse council area
- Criminal damage and arson49/1007.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour46/1009.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution29/1006.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain28/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene16/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 60 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions7/1001.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping3/1003.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Vale of White Horse council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Witney | 20 |
| 4 | Abingdon-on-Thames | 15 |
| 5 | Didcot | 13 |
| 6 | Bicester | 12 |
| 7 | Henley-on-Thames | 7 |
| 8 | Carterton | 5 |
| 9 | Wantage | 5 |
| 10 | Thame | 5 |
| 11 | Kidlington | 2 |
Wantage by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 65.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 14% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 341 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 260 per 10,000 people, 371.4x the typical town's 0.7
- 3 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 11 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 2 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 7.6 per 100,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.51am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 4.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 70% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,589 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Vale of White Horse council
- £2,577 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £185 more than the English average
- 20% of Oxfordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 25% higher than England's 16%
- 3 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Wantage 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.