Crap Towns / County Durham / Chester-le-Street
Chester-le-Street
77/100Crap Score
223rd crappest of 984 towns, and 5th in County Durham. 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
Chester-le-Street. Not the posh Chester.
County cricket by the river and a Front Street where the banks have all buggered off.
Chester-le-Street has the county cricket ground, a park by the river and a Roman fort underneath. Front Street has empty banks, empty pubs and charity shops. Barclays, Halifax and Lloyds have all gone since 2022. There's 26 hairdressers, mind, so the Cestrians look smart walking past the empty units.
4 of its 19 rated takeaways score 0 to 2, more than five times the typical town's share, so get your tea after the cricket somewhere else. Some knobhead keeps smashing the place up and setting fire to it, at six times the typical town's rate. The Wear gets the sewage. It's not the other Chester. You can tell.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Chester-le-Street's 95 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 95% of towns.
- Deliberate fires95/10034.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson91/10011.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills84/1001,039 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene83/1006.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 98 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour75/10019.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping56/10010.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, County Durham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband56/1006.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.6% across the County Durham council area
- Rain54/100130 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution35/1007.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions7/1001.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bishop Auckland | 95 |
| 2 | Stanley | 88 |
| 3 | Darlington | 80 |
| 4 | Hartlepool | 79 |
| 5 | Chester-le-Street | 77 |
| 6 | Spennymoor | 74 |
| 7 | Stockton-on-Tees | 73 |
| 8 | Peterlee | 71 |
| 9 | Durham | 70 |
Chester-le-Street by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 90.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 19% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical town's 0.7
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 15 pubs, 26 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 4 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 21.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (4 of 19) Worse: 5.3x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 12.7 per 100,000 people, 3.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 6% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open Better: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 1.9x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.22am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 22.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 42% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,517 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
County Durham council
Have a crap-off
Chester-le-Street 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.