Crap Towns / Northamptonshire / Desborough
Desborough
21/100Crap Score
People from here are Desborians.
781st crappest of 984 towns, and 10th in Northamptonshire. 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
Got something to say about Desborough? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Dirty, and nobody's forgotten
Desborough made shoes and corsets and got called Dirty Desborough. The name stuck.
Desborough made boots and corsets and got called Dirty Desborough over the state of the drains. The drains got fixed. The name didn't. These days not one of its kitchens has a poor hygiene rating, and nobody outside the town cares, because Dirty Desborough is too good to give up.
Now it's a load of new houses and not many shops, and no pool for anyone in them to swim in. The anti-social lot have woken up lately as well. Rothwell built a platform for a train that never came, so they're as daft as each other.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Desborough's 62 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 62% of towns.
- Fly-tipping62/10011.8 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Northamptonshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour54/10015.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires53/1005.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Sewage spills47/100246 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain42/100124 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution40/1006.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene26/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 38 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson19/1004.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband14/1002.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.7% across the North Northamptonshire council area
- Serious road collisions2/1000.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Wellingborough | 74 |
| 4 | Kettering | 54 |
| 5 | Corby | 52 |
| 6 | Rushden | 47 |
| 7 | Raunds | 43 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Burton Latimer | 34 |
| 9 | Towcester | 31 |
| 10 | Desborough | 21 |
| 11 | Brackley | 13 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Desborough by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 50.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 34% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 226 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 190 per 10,000 people, 55.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2023
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 6 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.35pm 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%
- 15.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space About the same: About the same as the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,528 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North Northamptonshire council
- £2,424 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £32 more than the English average
- 8% of North Northamptonshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 50% lower than England's 16%
- 25 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Desborough 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.