Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Huddersfield
Huddersfield
95/100Crap Score
51st crappest of 984 towns, and 7th 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
Lovely station. Pothole outside.
Gorgeous station. Step outside and the road's been dug up.
Huddersfield has a station that looks like a palace, then you walk out into roadworks. The potholes get patched and come back, new paving gets dug up the week after it's laid, and the town centre is empty shops. Serious crashes run well over the typical town's rate. Call it a city and someone will put you right.
The rain turns up on 157 days a year. 9 places are on the Heritage at Risk register, 5 swimming pools have shut since 2010, and the council recycles 27% of the rubbish. They invented rugby league here, in a pub. There's still 96 of them to choose from.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Huddersfield's 91 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Serious road collisions91/1004.1 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
- Rain81/100157 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene80/1003.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 1,095 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills79/100846 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires76/10010.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution71/10010.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson68/1008.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour54/10010.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband16/1003.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.8% across the Kirklees council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Dewsbury | 98 |
| 4 | Shipley | 97 |
| 5 | Halifax | 97 |
| 6 | Heckmondwike | 95 |
| 7 | Huddersfield | 95 |
| 8 | Elland | 94 |
| 9 | Batley | 94 |
| 10 | Wakefield | 93 |
| 11 | Pontefract | 92 |
Huddersfield by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 115 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 1.5x the typical town's 76.2
- 6 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 88% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 11 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 96 pubs, 88 hairdressers, 16 charity shops, 13 bookmakers, 7 vape shops, 14 banks, 7 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 6.8% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (15 of 222) Worse: 1.7x the typical town's 4.0%
- 14 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 38% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 6 public swimming pools open; 5 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 9 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.18am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 11.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 27% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,359 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 11% 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
Huddersfield 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.