Crap Towns / Hampshire / Waterlooville
Waterlooville
14/100Crap Score
845th crappest of 984 towns, and 16th in Hampshire. 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
Waterlooville. Dead in the middle.
Wellington Way is boarded up and everyone's at the retail park.
Waterlooville is supposedly named after soldiers coming back from Waterloo. Big story for a commuter town. Wellington Way is boarded-up shops, the precinct is empty, and everyone's gone to the retail park instead. The papers called it a zombie town. Crime's low, mind. There's nobody there to do any.
The buses are brilliant, mind. Over five times the typical town's Sunday departures per head, so you can get out of Waterlooville any day of the week, and plenty do. Barclays, Halifax and NatWest have shut a branch each. What's left is 25 hairdressers. Nobody's coming in, but at least they'll look tidy.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Waterlooville's 54 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 54% of towns.
- Serious road collisions54/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution51/1009.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping50/10010.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Havant council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain40/100124 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene34/1001.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 118 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills23/10053.4 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
- Deliberate fires17/1003.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband16/1002.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.2% across the Havant council area
- Anti-social behaviour16/1009.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson13/1004.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Tadley | 22 |
| 13 | Fareham | 20 |
| 14 | Lymington | 18 |
| 15 | Emsworth | 17 |
| 16 | Waterlooville | 14 |
| 17 | Fleet | 14 |
| 18 | Yateley | 12 |
| 19 | Andover | 11 |
| 20 | Winchester | 11 |
Waterlooville by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 65.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 14% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 166 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 47.7 per 10,000 people, 14x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 9 pubs, 25 hairdressers, 3 charity shops, 3 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 5 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 4.8% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 21) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 8.6 per 100,000 people, 2.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.0 per 10,000 people, 25% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 14% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.17am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 31.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,623 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 6% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Havant council
- £2,320 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £72 less than the English average
- 8% of Hampshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 50% lower than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Waterlooville 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.