Crap Towns / Derbyshire / Belper
Belper
8/100Crap Score
904th crappest of 984 towns, and 18th in Derbyshire. 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
Belper's very pleased with itself.
World Heritage mills and an award-winning high street. It knows. It keeps telling you.
Belper has World Heritage mills, an award-winning high street and hardly any crime, vandalism or fly-tipping. Bloody hard to slag off. Fine. If you weren't born there, some of them look at you like you've trodden something in, and there are 21 pubs for them to do it in.
For a World Heritage town it's managed to get 2 buildings on the Heritage at Risk register, which you'd think someone would have spotted on the way to collect the award. The sewers nearby overflow for more than two and a half times as long as the typical town's. It's wet on 136 days a year. That'll do.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Belper's 75 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 75% of towns.
- Sewage spills75/100711 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain63/100136 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution51/1007.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene48/1002.3% rated 0 to 2, of the 129 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband43/1005.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 10.8% across the Amber Valley council area
- Serious road collisions17/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour16/1009.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson10/1004.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires1/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping0/1001.8 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Amber Valley council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Ilkeston | 43 |
| 12 | Buxton | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.13 | Hadfield | 36 |
| 14 | Long Eaton | 33 |
| 15 | Brimington | 22 |
| 16 | Glossop | 16 |
| 17 | Swadlincote | 14 |
| 18 | Belper | 8 |
| 19 | Dronfield | 4 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Belper by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 48.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 36% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 4 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 2.1 per 10,000 people, 38% lower than 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
- 21 pubs, 18 hairdressers, 6 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 2 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 14) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 5.2 per 100,000 people, 1.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 5 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.6 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 29% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.53am 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%
- 2.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 82% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,490 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Amber Valley council
- £2,408 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £16 more than the English average
- 15% of Derbyshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 6% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Belper 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.