Crap Towns / West Lothian / Bathgate
Bathgate
77/100Crap Score
Known as B-Gate.
225th crappest of 984 towns, and the crappest in West Lothian. 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
Got something to say about Bathgate? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Bathgate. Somebody has to live here.
Paraffin, then lorries, then a song about the lorries going. Now the big industry is setting fire to wheelie bins.
Bathgate had the world's first oil works, made lorries for decades, and got a line in a famous song when the lorry plant shut. Bathgate no more. It's still here, mind, and it's the crappest town in West Lothian, ahead of Whitburn.
The local hobby is fire. Deliberate fires run at two and a half times the typical Scottish town's rate, the bins at about three times, and the grass and the woods get it too. Anti-social behaviour is 1.6 times the typical Scottish town's, and some of the best of it happens outside the council's Partnership Centre, right across the road from the police station.
The Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank have both shut. The last bus leaves at 1.04am, so at least getting out isn't the problem.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Bathgate's 95 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 95% of towns.
- Deliberate fires95/10055.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain86/100163 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour83/10012.7 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Criminal damage and arson81/1009.9 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions71/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Food hygiene50/1005.3% told to improve, of the 95 food businesses inspected
- Broadband43/1006.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.7% across the West Lothian council area
- Sewage spills36/100139 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Air pollution15/1006.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bathgate | 77 |
| 2 | Whitburn | 68 |
| 3 | Armadale | 58 |
| 4 | Livingston | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Broxburn | 30 |
| 6 | Linlithgow | 20 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Bathgate by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 69.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 28% higher than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 153 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 68.9 per 10,000 people, 12.3x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 10 pubs, 15 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 12.5% of takeaways inspected told to improve (3 of 24) Worse: 37% higher than the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 9.0 per 100,000 people, 2.6x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 44% lower than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 1.04am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.7% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 40% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 7.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 53% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,328 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 13% lower than the typical town's 1,532
West Lothian council
- £1,628 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £25 less than the Scottish average
- 31% of West Lothian council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 14% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 78 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 43.0 per 100,000 residents, 24% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 88.4% 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
Bathgate 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.