Crap Towns / Tyne and Wear / Wideopen

Welcome to

Wideopen

Wideopen. Joined up. We've heard the jokes.
Twinned with an open gate

31/100Crap Score

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 31. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

Have your say

Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

See the race

The 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 Wideopen? Write in.

Stop sniggering

The name does all the work. The village is quiet, apart from the fly-tippers.

Wideopen is a quiet old pit village on the Great North Road with a name that makes everyone snigger. It's all joined up, and they'll correct you if you split it. Crime's low and the roads are safe. Weetslade Country Park is nice. The only real problem is fly-tipping, which is worse than most. Somebody's treating it as a tip.

There's no public park on the map, so the nice bit's Weetslade, which is outside. Some bright spark's setting fire to things at twice the typical town's rate, and the latest serious pollution incident was contaminated building rubble dumped on the land in 2026. There's 2 pubs and no swimming pool. Nothing much happens. They'll tell you that's the point.

What the score is made of

Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.

Wideopen's 81 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 81% of towns.

  • Fly-tipping81/10019.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Tyneside council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
  • Deliberate fires78/10012.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
  • Sewage spills59/100400 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
  • Broadband46/1008.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.9% across the North Tyneside council area
  • Air pollution46/1009.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
  • Rain45/100125 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
  • Food hygiene35/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 20 food businesses with a rating
  • Anti-social behaviour20/10010.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
  • Criminal damage and arson13/1004.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
  • Serious road collisions7/1000.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
Your patch: Tyne and WearTowns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
PosTownNationalScore
10Houghton-le-Spring268th73
11Birtley309th69
12Longbenton383rd61
13Washington422nd57
14Whickham465th53
15Killingworth490th50
16Shiney Row and Penshaw525th47
In danger of becoming nice from here down.–Wideopen–31
17Whitley Bay733rd26

Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.

Have a crap-off

Wideopen against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.

WideopenCrap Score 31
v
KillingworthCrap Score 50

Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.