Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Keighley
Keighley
99/100Crap Score
8th crappest of 984 towns, and the crappest 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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Bottom of nearly every list
Anti-social behaviour, vandalism, fly-tipping, dodgy kitchens, crashes and sewage. The full set.
Keighley's said Keethley, and that's the easy bit. It's worse than most places for anti-social behaviour, vandalism, fly-tipping, food hygiene, crashes and sewage. All of it. Dangerous driving, shoplifting, engines revving in the street. The steam railway's lovely, and it does what most visitors want to do: leave for Haworth.
People get killed or badly hurt on the roads at more than twice the typical town's rate and crime at nearly twice. The bins go up in flames at about eleven times the typical rate. It rains on 153 days a year and the sun shows its face for 1,313 hours. Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest have all gone. It's the crappest town in West Yorkshire, ahead of Bradford, which takes some doing.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Keighley's 98 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Serious road collisions98/1005.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires95/10033.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping93/10032.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bradford council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Criminal damage and arson92/10011.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills85/1001,123 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour84/10015.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain78/100153 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene74/1003.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 319 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution30/1007.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband27/1005.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.5% across the Bradford council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keighley | 99 |
| 2 | Bradford | 99 |
| 3 | Dewsbury | 98 |
| 4 | Shipley | 97 |
| 5 | Halifax | 97 |
| 6 | Heckmondwike | 95 |
| 7 | Huddersfield | 95 |
| 8 | Elland | 94 |
| 9 | Batley | 94 |
Keighley by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 140 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 76.2
- 15 reports of litter and bins on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 3.1 per 10,000 people, 3.4x the typical town's 0.9
- 8 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 29 pubs, 25 hairdressers, 9 charity shops, 4 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 6 banks, 3 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 10.3% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (7 of 68) Worse: 2.6x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 6.2 per 100,000 people, 1.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 63% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 14% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 3 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.09am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.8% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 31% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,313 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 14% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Bradford council
- £2,361 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £31 less than the English average
- 13% of Bradford council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- 27 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Keighley 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.