Crap Towns / Lincolnshire / Deeping St James
Deeping St James
29/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 29. 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
Deeping St James stinks.
A nice old bridge, a backwards station sign, and drains you can smell from the car.
Deeping St James has a pretty old packhorse bridge, which lorries keep trying to squeeze over, and a tiny old village lock-up that stays empty, because nobody here does anything wrong. The signal box has the name on backwards. That's the scandal.
Both swimming pools have gone, the last in 2022, and they keep building houses with no doctors to go with them. The last bus home is at 6.16pm and there's none at all on a Sunday. Linchfield Road's drains stink, and the overflows run for four times as long as the typical town's. Good raft race, mind. Try not to fall in.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Deeping St James's 92 for broadband means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Broadband92/10023.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.0% across the South Kesteven council area
- Sewage spills84/1001,087 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene56/1003.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 26 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution41/1006.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping36/1008.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, South Kesteven council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions35/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour31/10012.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain7/100112 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson3/1003.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires2/1000.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Spalding | 64 |
| 10 | Grantham | 53 |
| 11 | Stamford | 46 |
| 12 | Sleaford | 45 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.13 | Humberston and New Waltham | 32 |
| 14 | Barton-upon-Humber | 32 |
| – | Deeping St James | 29 |
| 15 | Bourne | 15 |
| 16 | North Hykeham | 13 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Deeping St James by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 27.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 64% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 81 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 112 per 10,000 people, 32.9x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 3 pubs, 3 hairdressers on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- None public swimming pools open; 2 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
- 6.16pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.4x the typical town's 0.5%
- 16.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 5% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,651 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 8% higher than the typical town's 1,532
South Kesteven council
- £2,260 Band D council tax (2026-27) Better: £132 less than the English average
- 21% of Lincolnshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 31% higher than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Deeping St James 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.