Crap Towns / Merseyside / Aintree
Aintree
65/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 65. 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
No horses today? Then why are you here?
Everyone's heard of Aintree. Nobody's ever said they fancy going.
Aintree gets the Grand National once a year and the whole country watches. The rest of the time it's a racecourse, a canal and a retail park you can't get out of. On race day they shut the roads and some bloke charges you to park on his drive.
The horses get acres of grass. The people get no public park at all, and two thirds of them live more than 400 metres from anywhere to play. What Aintree does have is public toilets, seven times the typical town's rate per head, all built for the race crowds, who wee in the hedges anyway. Shoplifting is up at more than three times the typical town's, so the retail park's busy for all sorts of reasons.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Aintree's 89 for anti-social behaviour means it's crapper than 89% of towns.
- Anti-social behaviour89/10017.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires79/10012.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain75/100150 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution68/10011.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping66/10013.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Sefton council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions64/1002.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband36/1003.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 11.7% across the Sefton council area
- Sewage spills25/10063.3 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene24/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 41 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson22/1005.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Wallasey | 86 |
| 7 | Prescot | 83 |
| 8 | Huyton with Roby | 78 |
| 9 | Newton-le-Willows | 66 |
| – | Aintree | 65 |
| 10 | Haydock | 63 |
| 11 | Litherland | 59 |
| 12 | Bebington | 50 |
| 13 | Crosby | 48 |
Aintree by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 77.7 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
- 2 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2021
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 11.3 per 10,000 people, 7.1x the typical town's 1.6
- 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
- 11.49pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 65.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 4.2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,465 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Sefton council
Have a crap-off
Aintree 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.