Crap Towns / Herefordshire / Hereford
Hereford
32/100Crap Score
671st crappest of 984 towns, and 2nd in Herefordshire. 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
Ex-SAS, the lot of them
Cider, cattle and a bloke in every pub who says he was in the SAS.
Hereford has cider, famous cattle and the SAS, and every bloke in every pub will tell you he was in it. What none of them can do is get across town at rush hour. The bypass has been argued about for decades, and a quarter of the council's back roads want fixing.
Getting home's no better. Evening buses run 87% below the typical town's, so with 38 pubs in town, that's a lot of ex-special forces walking home in the dark. They'd tell you they're used to it. There's 1 bookie, the air's lovely and clean, and only Leominster scores crapper in the county. Shrewsbury fans hate the place. That's fine, the feeling's mutual.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Hereford's 57 for anti-social behaviour means it's crapper than 57% of towns.
- Anti-social behaviour57/10016.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson56/1007.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband56/1004.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.7% across the Herefordshire council area
- Food hygiene54/1002.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 419 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions54/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills47/100247 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2024 to 2025
- Deliberate fires29/1004.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain24/100119 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution16/1005.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping9/1004.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Herefordshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leominster | 48 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Hereford | 32 |
| 3 | Ross-on-Wye | 20 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Hereford by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 82.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 8% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 244 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 40.3 per 10,000 people, 11.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 38 pubs, 18 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 9 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (3 of 42) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 1.7 per 100,000 people, 50% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 24 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 4.0 per 10,000 people, 2.5x the typical town's 1.6
- 5 public swimming pools open Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 10.42pm 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%
- 6.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 56% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,533 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Herefordshire council
Have a crap-off
Hereford 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.