Crap Towns / County Durham / Ferryhill
Ferryhill
73/100Crap Score
Known as Fez or Fezza.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 73. 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
Toilets shut. Guess why.
They had to shut the public toilets on Saturdays because people kept wrecking them.
Ferryhill had to shut its public toilets on Saturdays because of what people kept doing in them. That's Fez in a nutshell. Empty shops, off-road bikes tearing about, fly-tipping, and vandalism at over three times the typical town's rate.
Crime overall runs at more than twice the typical town's. There's no public park on the map and no swimming pool, and over 60% of the town is more than 400 metres from anywhere to play. There's a legend about a wild boar at Cleves Cross. The boar was better behaved.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ferryhill's 99 for criminal damage and arson means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Criminal damage and arson99/10022.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires93/10031.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour84/10023.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills69/100577 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping56/10010.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, County Durham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain51/100128 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband47/1004.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.6% across the County Durham council area
- Food hygiene43/1002.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 51 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions37/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution17/1005.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Darlington | 80 |
| 4 | Hartlepool | 79 |
| 5 | Chester-le-Street | 77 |
| 6 | Spennymoor | 74 |
| – | Ferryhill | 73 |
| 7 | Stockton-on-Tees | 73 |
| 8 | Peterlee | 71 |
| 9 | Durham | 70 |
| 10 | Consett | 63 |
Ferryhill by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 161 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 2.1x the typical town's 76.2
- 1 problem reported on FixMyStreet in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.1 per 10,000 people, 95% lower than the typical town's 20.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2016
What's left on the high street
- 6 pubs, 1 hairdresser, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 12) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 banking hub opened here
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.1 per 10,000 people, 31% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 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
- 11.52pm last bus out on a Wednesday 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%
- 61.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 4x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,485 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
County Durham council
Have a crap-off
Ferryhill 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.