Crap Towns / Leicestershire / Blaby and Whetstone
Blaby and Whetstone
45/100Crap Score
542nd crappest of 984 towns, and 4th in Leicestershire. 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
Blaby. Mind the boy racers.
Blaby's bypass is a racetrack at night and a car park at rush hour. Lovely.
Whetstone helped build the jet engine, and the lads on Blaby bypass have been trying to break the sound barrier ever since. It's Fast and Furious after dark while everyone else lies awake. Come the morning, the rush hour through Whetstone goes at walking pace, so it evens out.
Blaby brought its old tomato back from the dead, which is more than anyone's managed for the swimming pool, shut since 2016. The water company lets sewage out nearby for more than three times as long as in the typical town, and 4 of the 66 food places with a rating score 0 to 2. Fast cars, slow everything else.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Blaby and Whetstone's 80 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 80% of towns.
- Sewage spills80/100901 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene79/1006.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 66 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution75/1009.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband66/10011.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 8.3% across the Blaby council area
- Serious road collisions53/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires34/1004.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour28/10011.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson25/1005.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping22/1006.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Blaby council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain22/100118 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leicester | 79 |
| 2 | Coalville | 58 |
| 3 | Loughborough | 46 |
| 4 | Blaby and Whetstone | 45 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Melton Mowbray | 33 |
| 6 | Leicester Forest East and Kirby Muxloe | 32 |
| 7 | Enderby and Narborough | 29 |
| 8 | Whitwick | 27 |
| 9 | Shepshed | 13 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Blaby and Whetstone by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 52.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 31% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 3 reports of litter and bins on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 2.1 per 10,000 people, 2.3x the typical town's 0.9
What's left on the high street
- 9 pubs, 13 hairdressers, 6 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 7.1 per 100,000 people, 2.1x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.7 per 10,000 people, 56% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open; 1 closed for good since 2010 Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.57pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 6.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 57% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,496 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Blaby council
- £2,490 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £98 more than the English average
- 11% of Leicestershire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 31% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Blaby and Whetstone 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.