Crap Towns / Leicestershire / Ibstock
Ibstock
21/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 21. 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 Ibstock? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Nice trees. Shame about the sewage.
Old pit land turned into forest. The library shut, and the Sunday buses don't exist.
Ibstock dug coal and made bricks, and the old pit land is now Sence Valley Forest Park. Fair play, it's nice. The place is crawling with parks and play spaces and hardly anybody misbehaves in them. The library shut in 2024, mind, so the trees are the entertainment.
Then there's the sewage. The storm overflows spill for 16.3 times as long as the typical town's. Sixteen times. On a weeknight the last bus pulls out at 7.41pm and on a Sunday there isn't one. Plenty of trees, then, and plenty of time to sit and look at them.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ibstock's 99 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Sewage spills99/1004,482 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene69/1005.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 36 food businesses with a rating
- Rain56/100131 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution39/1006.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires38/1004.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband31/1003.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 10.5% across the North West Leicestershire council area
- Serious road collisions22/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping14/1005.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North West Leicestershire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Criminal damage and arson14/1004.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour6/1007.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Melton Mowbray | 33 |
| 6 | Leicester Forest East and Kirby Muxloe | 32 |
| 7 | Enderby and Narborough | 29 |
| 8 | Whitwick | 27 |
| – | Ibstock | 21 |
| 9 | Shepshed | 13 |
| 10 | Hinckley | 11 |
| 11 | Mountsorrel | 10 |
| 12 | Earl Shilton | 9 |
Ibstock by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 56.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 26% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 5 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 7.3 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 1 hairdresser, 1 charity shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Ibstock (2024)
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 6% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.5 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.41pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.7% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 40% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 4.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 73% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,473 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North West Leicestershire council
- £2,418 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £26 more than the English average
- 11% of Leicestershire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 31% lower than England's 16%
- 2 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Ibstock 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.