Crap Towns / Staffordshire / Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook
Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook
5/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 5. Higher scores are crapper.
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Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Stuck at the crossing again.
Nice enough villages. You'll see a lot of them from your car on Uttoxeter Road.
Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook grew into each other and nobody stopped them. It's annoyingly decent, so the main moan is the level crossing on Uttoxeter Road, where you'll spend a good chunk of your life. When there's a diversion on, the lorries rattle the houses all night. Foxfield runs steam trains for the enthusiasts, so even the railway's in no hurry.
There's no public park between the pair of them, and two thirds of the people live more than 400 metres from a park or a swing. It chucks it down on 149 days a year. The buses stop at 7.02pm on a Wednesday. So that's your evening: indoors, wet, listening to the lorries.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook's 78 for broadband means it's crapper than 78% of towns.
- Broadband78/1007.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 24.4% across the Staffordshire Moorlands council area
- Rain73/100149 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour36/10012.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution34/1006.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene29/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 30 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills25/10062.5 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson16/1004.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires11/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions9/1000.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping5/1003.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Staffordshire Moorlands council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Uttoxeter | 16 |
| 12 | Tamworth | 15 |
| 13 | Cheadle | 14 |
| 14 | Stone | 13 |
| 15 | Lichfield | 10 |
| 16 | Burntwood | 6 |
| – | Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook | 5 |
| 17 | Cannock | 4 |
| 18 | Rugeley | 2 |
Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 58.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 24% 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 Worse: 5.9 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.02pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 67.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 4.3x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,427 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Staffordshire Moorlands council
- £2,338 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £54 less than the English average
- 10% of Staffordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 38% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Blythe Bridge and Forsbrook 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.