Crap Towns / Warwickshire / Atherstone
Atherstone
76/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 76. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Ball ache.
Once a year the town kicks the shit out of itself over a ball. They call it heritage.
Every Shrove Tuesday Atherstone boards up the shops and the whole town kicks lumps out of each other over a ball. They used to make felt hats here. Now it's vape shop, charity shop, Greggs, 12 pubs and 14 hairdressers, and the kids have sod all to do from one Shrove Tuesday to the next.
There's hardly any park to send them to: 0.3 square metres of public park per head, which is about a doormat each. Nearly a quarter of the town can't get gigabit broadband, so they can't stay in either. The sewers nearby overflow for more than four times as long as the typical town's. Honestly, the ball game's the highlight.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Atherstone's 92 for broadband means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Broadband92/10022.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 18.1% across the North Warwickshire council area
- Sewage spills86/1001,197 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping72/10015.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Warwickshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour69/10018.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene68/1004.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 73 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution55/1008.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson50/1007.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain43/100125 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions39/1002.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires10/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| – | Atherstone | 76 |
| 1 | Bedworth | 70 |
| 2 | Warwick | 64 |
| 3 | Nuneaton | 62 |
| 4 | Rugby | 54 |
| 5 | Royal Leamington Spa | 46 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.6 | Stratford-upon-Avon | 37 |
| 7 | Kenilworth | 26 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Atherstone by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 82.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 9% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 82 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 94.6 per 10,000 people, 27.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 12 pubs, 14 hairdressers, 3 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 6.3% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 16) Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 11.5 per 100,000 people, 3.4x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.3 per 10,000 people, 44% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 2.3 per 10,000 people, 3.3x the typical English town's 0.7
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 9.58pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier 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%
- 18.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 17% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,530 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North Warwickshire council
- £2,532 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £140 more than the English average
- 13% of Warwickshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Atherstone 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.