Crap Towns / Nottinghamshire / Arnold
Arnold
25/100Crap Score
735th crappest of 984 towns, and 18th in Nottinghamshire. 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
How many barbers does one street need?
Front Street's either shut or cutting hair.
Arnold? Front Street's shit, mate. Empty shops, then barbers, vape shops, barbers, vape shops. There are 32 hairdressers in this town. How many haircuts does one place need? Two hundred years ago Arnold's knitters were smashing up the frames that took their jobs. Now the shops go one at a time and nobody can be arsed to pick up a hammer.
Gedling charges £2,610 for a Band D home, well over England's average, and what you get for it is Front Street. The air's about a third worse than the typical town's for nitrogen dioxide. Arnot Hill Park's all right. The takeaways are clean, to be fair. Every last one of them.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Arnold's 85 for air pollution means it's crapper than 85% of towns.
- Air pollution85/10011.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Anti-social behaviour62/10017.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions62/1002.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires38/1005.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain37/100123 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson34/1005.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping33/1008.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Gedling council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband18/1002.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.5% across the Gedling council area
- Sewage spills13/10014.5 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene1/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 183 food businesses with a rating
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Forest Town | 55 |
| 13 | Mansfield Woodhouse | 55 |
| 14 | Balderton | 54 |
| 15 | New Ollerton and Ollerton | 54 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.16 | Beeston | 35 |
| 17 | West Bridgford | 33 |
| 18 | Arnold | 25 |
| 19 | Carlton | 25 |
| 20 | Bingham | 16 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Arnold by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 58.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 23% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 8 reports of abandoned vehicles on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 2.0 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 0.9
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 18 pubs, 32 hairdressers, 11 charity shops, 5 bookmakers, 5 vape shops, 6 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 19) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 5.0 per 100,000 people, 47% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 5 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 25% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 3 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
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 34% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,500 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Gedling council
- £2,610 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £218 more than the English average
- 19% of Nottinghamshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 19% higher than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Arnold 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.