Crap Towns / Gloucestershire / Yate
Yate
31/100Crap Score
683rd crappest of 984 towns, and 11th in Gloucestershire. 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
Say it posh. Still Yate.
The cinema got turned into an Aldi. That's the story of Yate.
Yate is an open-air shopping precinct with a town round it. They turned the cinema into an Aldi, you can't park at the shops, the queue for the McDonald's drive-through blocks the road and the yobs hang about the shopping centre. Some say it Yah-tay to sound posh.
The fire brigade gets called to deliberate fires at two and a half times the typical town's rate, mostly grass and woods, so the local yobs have found something to do. Chipping Sodbury next door is just glad it isn't Yate.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Yate's 82 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 82% of towns.
- Deliberate fires82/10014.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene68/1003.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 106 food businesses with a rating
- Rain65/100138 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution47/1008.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband44/1003.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.6% across the South Gloucestershire council area
- Criminal damage and arson39/1006.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour37/10013.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions35/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping26/1007.1 incidents per 1,000 people a year, South Gloucestershire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Sewage spills9/1005.3 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Tewkesbury | 38 |
| 8 | Quedgeley and Hardwicke | 37 |
| 9 | Cirencester | 36 |
| 10 | Brockworth | 31 |
| 11 | Yate | 31 |
| 12 | Stoke Gifford | 30 |
| 13 | Churchdown | 24 |
| 14 | Frampton Cotterell and Winterbourne | 21 |
| 15 | Bradley Stoke | 6 |
Yate by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 74.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 76.2
- 71 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 25.0 per 10,000 people, 7.4x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 9 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 6 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 2 vape shops, 3 banks, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 14) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 About the same: 3.5 per 100,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 3.4
- 6 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.1 per 10,000 people, 31% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.34am 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%
- 2.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 87% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,607 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
South Gloucestershire council
- £2,551 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £159 more than the English average
- 9% of South Gloucestershire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 44% lower than England's 16%
- 12 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Yate 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.