Crap Towns / Derbyshire / Dronfield
Dronfield
4/100Crap Score
945th crappest of 984 towns, and 19th in Derbyshire. 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 Dronfield? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Dronfield. They call it the Dronx.
Locals call it the Dronx. Clean kitchens and a beer festival. Hard as nails.
Dronfield calls itself the Dronx, which is a lot of tough talk for a town with half the typical town's crime and not one dodgy kitchen. There's a beer festival, a music festival, and the oldest football club in the world plays here.
There's 1 hairdresser for the whole town, so at least the Dronx looks a bit rough. It's wet on 138 days a year and the storm overflows spill at 2.5 times the typical town's rate, which is the only properly shit thing about the place. The rest of the moaning is lorries. Annoying, frankly.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Dronfield's 73 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 73% of towns.
- Sewage spills73/100677 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain66/100138 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution63/1008.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband60/1008.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 12.1% across the North East Derbyshire council area
- Fly-tipping20/1006.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North East Derbyshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions10/1001.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson6/1003.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene4/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 112 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires2/1001.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour2/1005.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Ilkeston | 43 |
| 12 | Buxton | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.13 | Hadfield | 36 |
| 14 | Long Eaton | 33 |
| 15 | Brimington | 22 |
| 16 | Glossop | 16 |
| 17 | Swadlincote | 14 |
| 18 | Belper | 8 |
| 19 | Dronfield | 4 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Dronfield by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 38.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 50% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 2 reports of litter and bins on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 About the same: 0.9 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 0.9
What's left on the high street
- 14 pubs, 1 hairdresser, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 13) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 5 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.4 per 10,000 people, 1.5x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.44pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 11.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 25% lower than 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 East Derbyshire council
- £2,467 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £75 more than the English average
- 15% of Derbyshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 6% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Dronfield 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.