Crap Towns / Hertfordshire / Buntingford
Buntingford
13/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 13. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
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
Buntingford. Nice, but dead.
A lovely old High Street with absolutely nothing going on in it.
Buntingford's nice, which is annoying, and dead, which is worse. No station, hardly any buses, and the big night of the year is a car show. They knocked down the Sainsbury's depot and built houses, and nobody built anything for the people in them to do.
The pool shut for good in 2023. The last bus on a Wednesday goes at 9.53pm and on a Sunday there's barely a handful. What it has got is a Greggs, which per head is more than four times the typical town's, so at least the kids have somewhere to hang about. The yobs have noticed, and anti-social behaviour's now above the typical town's. Down the road in Chipping they toss sausages for fun. That's the nightlife.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Buntingford's 59 for broadband means it's crapper than 59% of towns.
- Broadband59/1006.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.0% across the East Hertfordshire council area
- Anti-social behaviour54/10015.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene52/1002.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 36 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution37/1006.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills34/100124 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires34/1004.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson22/1005.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain16/100116 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions16/1001.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping10/1004.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, East Hertfordshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Bishop's Stortford | 19 |
| 17 | Tring | 19 |
| 18 | Royston | 18 |
| 19 | St Albans | 18 |
| – | Buntingford | 13 |
| 20 | Ware | 8 |
| 21 | Sawbridgeworth | 7 |
| 22 | Hertford | 7 |
| 23 | Abbots Langley and Kings Langley | 7 |
Buntingford by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 51.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 32% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 6 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 7.6 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.8 per 10,000 people, 2.4x 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
- 9.53pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 10.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 34% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,582 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
East Hertfordshire council
- £2,455 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £63 more than the English average
- 18% of Hertfordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Buntingford 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.