Crap Towns / Cheshire / Congleton
Congleton
33/100Crap Score
664th crappest of 984 towns, and 10th in Cheshire. 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
Congleton. Pay to park, then leave.
Mill Street's full of empty shops, the parking costs money and the shoppers have buggered off.
Congleton calls itself Beartown, after the bear-baiting, which is a grim thing to name yourself after. Legend says the town once sold its bible to buy a new bear, and the rhyme about it still does the rounds. Mill Street is empty shops and derelict ones, and the parking charges send what shoppers are left elsewhere.
There are 34 hairdressers, two and a half times the typical town's rate, so the people walking past the empty shops have lovely hair. Don't go for a paddle in the river to cheer yourself up. The water company lets sewage out for more than four times as long as in the typical town.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Congleton's 86 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 86% of towns.
- Sewage spills86/1001,176 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain74/100150 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband49/1004.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.3% across the Cheshire East council area
- Serious road collisions44/1002.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping43/10010.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Cheshire East council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Food hygiene41/1002.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 147 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution37/1007.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Anti-social behaviour23/1007.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson14/1004.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires1/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Ellesmere Port | 49 |
| 7 | Warrington | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Runcorn | 39 |
| 9 | Middlewich | 39 |
| 10 | Congleton | 33 |
| 11 | Sandbach | 31 |
| 12 | Nantwich | 28 |
| 13 | Neston | 28 |
| 14 | Alsager | 22 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Congleton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 70.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 7% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 15 problems reported on FixMyStreet in the year to October 2026 Better: 5.0 per 10,000 people, 75% lower than the typical town's 20.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2020
What's left on the high street
- 23 pubs, 34 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 3 vape shops, 3 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 8.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 25) Worse: 2x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 About the same: 3.3 per 100,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 3.4
- 9 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.0 per 10,000 people, 1.9x the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open; 2 closed for good since 2010 Better: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 43% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.51pm 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%
- 17.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 12% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,424 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Cheshire East council
- £2,455 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £63 more than the English average
- 17% of Cheshire East council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 6% higher than England's 16%
- 33 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Congleton 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.