Crap Towns / Hertfordshire / Hitchin
Hitchin
35/100Crap Score
Locals are Hitchinites or Hitchiners.
644th crappest of 984 towns, and 11th in Hertfordshire. 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
Got something to say about Hitchin? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Coffee, charity shop, haircut, repeat
Lavender fields, a nice market square and a roundabout the locals call Cholesterol Corner.
Hitchin's nice, expensive and wall to wall coffee shops. They used to grow lavender round here. Now the famous smell is Cholesterol Corner, the roundabout ringed with takeaways. Locals call it Bitchin' Hitchin, and they'll still tell you it's a cut above Stevenage.
It's dead after tea, mind. Evening buses run 72% below the typical town per head, and Sunday's not much better. So you can't get out of Hitchin and nobody can get in. If you live in Hitchin, that's the point.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Hitchin's 68 for air pollution means it's crapper than 68% of towns.
- Air pollution68/1008.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping57/10010.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Hertfordshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions55/1002.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband55/1006.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.2% across the North Hertfordshire council area
- Anti-social behaviour50/10015.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene35/1001.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 261 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills31/100101 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson21/1005.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain14/100115 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires11/1002.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Potters Bar | 43 |
| 8 | Bushey | 42 |
| 9 | Welwyn Garden City | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.10 | Watford | 38 |
| 11 | Hitchin | 35 |
| 12 | Letchworth | 28 |
| 13 | Hoddesdon | 28 |
| 14 | Berkhamsted | 22 |
| 15 | Cheshunt | 21 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Hitchin by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 54.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 28% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 100 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 28.4 per 10,000 people, 8.4x the typical town's 3.4
- 9 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 21 pubs, 7 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 6 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 31) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 5.7 per 100,000 people, 1.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 10 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.8 per 10,000 people, 1.8x the typical town's 1.6
- 4 public swimming pools open Better: 1.1 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.51pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 16.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space About the same: About the same as the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,582 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North Hertfordshire council
- £2,449 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £57 more than the English average
- 18% of Hertfordshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Hitchin 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.