Crap Towns / Aberdeen City / Cove Bay
Cove Bay
7/100Crap Score
Known as Cove.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 7. 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
Cove Bay. Lovely, if you can see it.
A wee fishing village swallowed by Aberdeen, with a harbour at the bottom of a cliff and the haar on top.
Cove was a fishing village before Aberdeen grew into it, and the harbour's still down there at the bottom of the cliff, if you fancy the climb back up. Aberdeen gets the sunshine. Cove gets the haar, rolling in off the North Sea while the city's sat out in T-shirts.
There's 1 pub and 1 hairdresser, and 3 of the 15 places that serve food were told to improve. Somebody reported a problem on FixMyStreet last year. Just the 1. Cove's that sort of place.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Cove Bay's 80 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 80% of towns.
- Food hygiene80/10020.0% told to improve, of the 15 food businesses inspected
- Rain63/100136 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Deliberate fires38/10014.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson30/1005.6 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Anti-social behaviour14/1003.8 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Broadband9/1000.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.9% across the Aberdeen City council area
- Air pollution5/1005.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Serious road collisions2/1000.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aberdeen | 51 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Cove Bay | 7 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Cove Bay by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 35.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 35% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 1 problem reported on FixMyStreet in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 94% lower than the typical Scottish town's 20.1
What's left on the high street
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.21am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- Under 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Far lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,532 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Aberdeen City council
- £1,748 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £95 more than the Scottish average
- 28% of Aberdeen City council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 22% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 90 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 40.2 per 100,000 residents, 16% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 91.5% 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
Cove Bay 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.