Crap Towns / North Lanarkshire / Bellshill
Bellshill
73/100Crap Score
Known as Bellshell.
267th crappest of 984 towns, and 5th in North Lanarkshire. 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 Bellshill? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Bellshill. Bring your own toilet.
Half of Lanarkshire was born in its maternity hospital. The hospital shut, and the bins have been on fire ever since.
Bellshill is where everyone in Lanarkshire seems to have been born, because the maternity hospital was here. It shut in 2001. What's left is a Main Street of empty units, offices nobody wants and a Greggs.
The fire brigade knows the way. Deliberate fires come in at twice the typical Scottish town's rate, and bins and rubbish at more than three times. It's one corner of the Buckfast Triangle, with Airdrie and Coatbridge, and the empties have to go somewhere.
The whole town has 1 public toilet on the map, so the bushes round Strathclyde Park do a lot of the work.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Bellshill's 91 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Deliberate fires91/10047.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain88/100164 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson77/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Anti-social behaviour73/10011.4 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Serious road collisions59/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Food hygiene56/1005.9% told to improve, of the 118 food businesses inspected
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Air pollution44/1009.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills42/100195 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Broadband27/1004.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.6% across the North Lanarkshire council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Motherwell | 90 |
| 2 | Coatbridge | 85 |
| 3 | Airdrie | 83 |
| 4 | Wishaw | 75 |
| 5 | Bellshill | 73 |
| 6 | Kilsyth | 61 |
| 7 | Viewpark | 53 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Cumbernauld | 34 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Bellshill by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 61.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 13% higher than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 18 reports of litter and bins on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 9.2 per 10,000 people, 13.1x the typical Scottish town's 0.7
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 2 hairdressers, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 3.5% of takeaways inspected told to improve (1 of 29) Better: 62% lower than the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 5.1 per 100,000 people, 1.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 69% lower than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.39am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 2.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 84% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,301 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 15% lower than the typical town's 1,532
North Lanarkshire council
- £1,555 Band D council tax (2026-27) Better: £98 less than the Scottish average
- 33% of North Lanarkshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 8% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 119 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld About the same: 34.9 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 87.9% 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
Bellshill 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.