Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Gomersal and Birkenshaw
Gomersal and Birkenshaw
79/100Crap Score
208th crappest of 984 towns, and 20th in West Yorkshire. 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
Who designed that roundabout?
They redesigned the Birkenshaw roundabout. Everyone hates it.
Gomersal and Birkenshaw have a house that was in a Brontë novel and a roundabout everyone has hated since it was redesigned. People belt along Bradford Road and Whitehall Road, you can't get across either of them, and serious crashes come in at half as much again as the typical town's.
All that traffic puts the nitrogen dioxide well over the typical town's, and somebody's setting fire to things at nearly three times the typical rate. It rains on 146 days a year. There's been 11 serious pollution incidents round here since 2016, paint in the water twice. There's no swimming pool. There's the roundabout.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Gomersal and Birkenshaw's 87 for air pollution means it's crapper than 87% of towns.
- Air pollution87/10013.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires85/10016.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions82/1003.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping82/10019.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Kirklees council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain71/100146 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour69/10012.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills69/100574 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson33/1005.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene11/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 70 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband8/1001.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.8% across the Kirklees council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Baildon | 84 |
| 17 | Mirfield | 81 |
| 18 | Bingley | 80 |
| 19 | Liversedge | 80 |
| 20 | Gomersal and Birkenshaw | 79 |
| 21 | Pudsey | 72 |
| 22 | Todmorden | 70 |
| 23 | Normanton | 68 |
| 24 | Featherstone | 68 |
Gomersal and Birkenshaw by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 65.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 14% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.7 per 10,000 people, 79% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 11 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 6 hairdressers 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
- 11.33pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 2.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 85% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,348 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 12% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Kirklees council
- £2,441 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £49 more than the English average
- 22% of Kirklees council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 38% higher than England's 16%
- 22 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Gomersal and Birkenshaw 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.