Crap Towns / Tyne and Wear / Wideopen
Wideopen
31/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 31. 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
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
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Houghton-le-Spring | 73 |
| 11 | Birtley | 69 |
| 12 | Longbenton | 61 |
| 13 | Washington | 57 |
| 14 | Whickham | 53 |
| 15 | Killingworth | 50 |
| 16 | Shiney Row and Penshaw | 47 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Wideopen | 31 |
| 17 | Whitley Bay | 26 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Wideopen by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 38.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 50% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 5 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 5.5 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 4 hairdressers 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
- 12.08am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 44.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 2.9x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,521 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North Tyneside council
- £2,462 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £70 more than the English average
- 8% of North Tyneside council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 50% lower than England's 16%
- 16 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Wideopen 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.