Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Boston Spa
Boston Spa
18/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 18. 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
Posh, with sewage.
Georgian houses, jazz nights, and the Wharfe full of shit.
Boston Spa thinks it's a cut above. Georgian high street, jazz nights, the British Library keeping its spare books up the road at Thorp Arch. It's got 7 pubs for a village this size, so there's always somewhere to tell you how nice it is.
And it is, annoyingly. Crime's less than half the typical town's and hardly anybody smashes anything. The worst that happens is a lorry trying to get round off Bridge Road. Meanwhile the water company lets sewage out for over four times as long as in the typical town, so the Wharfe under all that Georgian loveliness is full of shit. The old spa water smelt of eggs. Still does, by the sound of it.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Boston Spa's 86 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 86% of towns.
- Sewage spills86/1001,217 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping79/10015.6 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Leeds council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene53/1002.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 34 food businesses with a rating
- Rain34/100122 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution28/1006.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband16/1003.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.0% across the Leeds council area
- Deliberate fires12/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour7/1004.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions5/1000.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson1/1002.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Honley | 56 |
| 31 | Otley | 55 |
| 32 | Ilkley | 48 |
| 33 | Guiseley | 48 |
| 34 | Kippax | 44 |
| 35 | Yeadon | 43 |
| 36 | Garforth | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Boston Spa | 18 |
| 37 | Wetherby | 16 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Boston Spa by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 36.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 52% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.6 per 10,000 people, 53% lower than the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.1 per 10,000 people, 1.9x the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.40pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier 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%
- 19.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 28% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,405 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 8% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Leeds council
Have a crap-off
Boston Spa 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.