Crap Towns / North Yorkshire / Filey
Filey
25/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 25. 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
No signal. No parking. No chips.
Big beach, gulls nicking your dinner and a parking app that won't load.
Filey has a massive sandy beach and the Brig and looks lovely. Then you try paying for parking on an app with no signal, the campervans have every space and the gulls have your chips. The swimming pool shut for good, so it's the sea or nothing, and the sea's had its sewage warnings.
It's got 8 charity shops, which per head is over eight times the typical town's, and over five times the typical town's public toilets. Anti-social behaviour runs well over the typical town's rate. There's no bus after 9.42pm. Lovely spot, though. From a distance.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Filey's 84 for anti-social behaviour means it's crapper than 84% of towns.
- Anti-social behaviour84/10023.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene65/1003.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 80 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills42/100197 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband42/1001.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.4% across the North Yorkshire council area
- Rain34/100122 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson29/1005.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires25/1003.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions19/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping12/1005.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Yorkshire council area, 2023-24 to 2024-25
- Air pollution7/1004.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Selby | 51 |
| 12 | Huntington | 46 |
| 13 | Haxby | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.14 | Catterick Garrison | 31 |
| – | Filey | 25 |
| 15 | Knaresborough | 25 |
| 16 | Harrogate | 16 |
| 17 | Ripon | 15 |
| 18 | Ingleby Barwick | 8 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Filey by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 47.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 38% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 3 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 4.5 per 10,000 people, 6.4x the typical town's 0.7
- Good Filey's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 9 pubs, 10 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 8.3% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 12) Worse: 2.1x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 banking hub opened here
- 6 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 9.0 per 10,000 people, 5.6x the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open; 1 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
- 9.42pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 7.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 51% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,644 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 7% higher than the typical town's 1,532
North Yorkshire council
- £2,544 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £152 more than the English average
- 18% of North Yorkshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- 41 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Filey 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.