Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Hebden Bridge
Hebden Bridge
70/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 70. 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
It's flooding again.
Arty, hippyish and gorgeous, until the river comes through the front door. Again.
Hebden used to make trousers. Now it's artists, hippies and very expensive flapjacks. Every few years the river comes through the shops, and the rows about flood defences outlast the clean-up. Parking's impossible and the holiday lets have the rest.
It rains on 171 days a year. The water company lets sewage out nearby for over forty times as long as in the typical town, which is a lot of shit for a river that already comes in the front door. Half the town can't get gigabit broadband, so you can't even work from home in peace. 6% of the food places score 0 to 2. Bring wellies, and your card for the flapjack.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Hebden Bridge's 100 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 100% of towns.
- Sewage spills100/10011,297 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband99/10049.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 12.1% across the Calderdale council area
- Rain93/100171 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene81/1006.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 84 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour78/10014.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions46/1002.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson26/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping20/1006.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Calderdale council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution18/1005.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires17/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Liversedge | 80 |
| 20 | Gomersal and Birkenshaw | 79 |
| 21 | Pudsey | 72 |
| 22 | Todmorden | 70 |
| – | Hebden Bridge | 70 |
| 23 | Normanton | 68 |
| 24 | Featherstone | 68 |
| 25 | Brighouse | 66 |
| 26 | Morley | 66 |
Hebden Bridge by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 63.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 17% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 8 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 15.3 per 10,000 people, 4.5x 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
- 12 pubs, 3 hairdressers, 3 charity shops on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 7.7 per 10,000 people, 4.8x the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.33pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 4.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 8.8x the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 65% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,308 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 15% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Calderdale council
- £2,420 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £28 more than the English average
- 23% of Calderdale council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 44% higher than England's 16%
- 8 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Hebden Bridge 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.