Crap Towns / Fife / Ballingry
Ballingry
42/100Crap Score
Locals call it Bingry.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 42. 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
Ballingry. Watch your feet.
An old pit village under Benarty Hill, where the mine workings still open up the odd hole in the ground.
Ballingry is a pit village under Benarty Hill, and the pits haven't quite finished with it. Every so often the old workings open up a sinkhole. The bings became Lochore Meadows, which is lovely, and the village kept five hairdressers, a bookie and no pub.
The grass goes up at two and a half times the typical Scottish town's rate, and the deliberate fires have gone up sharply in two years. It gets 1,323 hours of sun a year, so maybe they're after the light.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ballingry's 75 for criminal damage and arson means it's crapper than 75% of towns.
- Criminal damage and arson75/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Rain73/100149 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires69/10031.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour59/1009.0 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions52/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Broadband41/1002.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.9% across the Fife council area
- Sewage spills30/10094.7 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Food hygiene12/1000.0% told to improve, of the 52 food businesses inspected
- Air pollution1/1003.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirkcaldy | 76 |
| 2 | Cowdenbeath | 62 |
| 3 | Methil | 53 |
| 4 | Glenrothes | 52 |
| – | Ballingry | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Rosyth | 30 |
| 6 | Leven | 28 |
| 7 | Dunfermline | 18 |
| 8 | St Andrews | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Ballingry by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
What's left on the high street
- 5 hairdressers, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 6% higher than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.41pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Against the typical town's 0.5%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,323 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 14% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Fife council
- £1,574 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £79 less than the Scottish average
- 32% of Fife council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 11% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 127 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, 2 upheld About the same: 34.1 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 96.1% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Ballingry 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.