Crap Towns / West Lothian / Broxburn
Broxburn
30/100Crap Score
Locals call it the Bronx.
692nd crappest of 984 towns, and 5th in West Lothian. 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 Broxburn? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Broxburn. The bings are the view.
The shale oil men left giant red bings behind. The swimming pool went as well, and it didn't leave anything.
Broxburn made oil out of shale and dumped the spoil in great red heaps, the bings, which are still the biggest things for miles. Locals call the place the Bronx. Nothing about it is the Bronx. The swimming pool's gone, there's not much on for a night out and there's 1 public toilet for the whole town.
Greggs per head is over four times the typical town's, so nobody goes hungry. Cars get broken into at nearly twice the typical Scottish town's rate, and folk keep reporting abandoned ones on FixMyStreet.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Broxburn's 75 for rain means it's crapper than 75% of towns.
- Rain75/100151 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires67/10029.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson61/1007.9 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Serious road collisions48/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills33/100115 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Anti-social behaviour24/1006.0 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Food hygiene24/1002.2% told to improve, of the 46 food businesses inspected
- Air pollution22/1007.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband19/1002.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.7% across the West Lothian council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bathgate | 77 |
| 2 | Whitburn | 68 |
| 3 | Armadale | 58 |
| 4 | Livingston | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Broxburn | 30 |
| 6 | Linlithgow | 20 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Broxburn by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 49.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 9% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 27 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 17.5 per 10,000 people, 3.1x the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 2 bookmakers, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 8.3% of takeaways inspected told to improve (1 of 12) Better: 9% lower than the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 6.5 per 100,000 people, 1.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 63% lower than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.01am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 0.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 94% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,393 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 9% lower than the typical town's 1,532
West Lothian council
- £1,628 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £25 less than the Scottish average
- 31% of West Lothian council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 14% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 78 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 43.0 per 100,000 residents, 24% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 88.4% 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
Broxburn 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.