Crap Towns / Berkshire / Wokingham
Wokingham
5/100Crap Score
Known as Woky.
934th crappest of 984 towns, and 9th in Berkshire. 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
Wokingham. Nothing to complain about.
Posh Berkshire town, low crime, nice buildings. The big loss is Marks & Spencer.
Wokingham is a posh, tidy Berkshire town with timber-framed buildings, hardly any crime and nothing much wrong with it. That doesn't stop anyone moaning. Marks & Spencer left, parking costs money, and every empty shop has become another coffee shop or barber. Proper hardship, that.
The takeaways, though. 18.2% of the rated ones score 0 to 2 for hygiene, over four times the typical town's share, so the posh lot are eating dodgy kebabs. Barclays, Halifax, Lloyds and NatWest have all shut a branch, and 4 public pools have closed for good since 2010. Woky's got something real to moan about at last.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Wokingham's 60 for air pollution means it's crapper than 60% of towns.
- Air pollution60/1008.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene51/1002.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 201 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping42/1009.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wokingham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband36/1006.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.2% across the Wokingham council area
- Sewage spills26/10069.2 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain16/100116 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions13/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour12/1005.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires11/100
- Criminal damage and arson5/1003.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Windsor | 21 |
| 6 | Thatcham | 17 |
| 7 | Bracknell | 7 |
| 8 | Maidenhead | 6 |
| 9 | Wokingham | 5 |
| 10 | Caversham | 3 |
| 11 | Crowthorne | 2 |
| 12 | Sandhurst | 1 |
| 13 | Woodley | 1 |
Wokingham by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 43.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 43% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 64 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 12.7 per 10,000 people, 3.7x 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
- 22 pubs, 10 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 4 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 18.2% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (4 of 22) Worse: 4.6x the typical town's 4.0%
- 4 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 7.9 per 100,000 people, 2.3x the typical town's 3.4
- 13 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.6 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 1.6
- 4 public swimming pools open; 4 closed for good since 2010 Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.39pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.8x the typical town's 0.5%
- 17.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 14% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,616 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 5% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Wokingham council
- £2,498 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £106 more than the English average
- 20% of Wokingham council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 25% higher than England's 16%
- 15 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Wokingham 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.