Crap Towns / Herefordshire / Ledbury
Ledbury
11/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 11. Higher scores are crapper.
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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
Ledbury. Pretty, and it knows it.
Black and white buildings and a poetry festival. Ledbury's very impressed with Ledbury.
Ledbury is all black and white timber buildings, a poetry festival and Morris dancers. It's sickeningly pretty. The trade's gone out of town, so the lovely old High Street runs on charity shops, at 4.3 times the typical town's rate per head, plus a Greggs, a vape shop and a lot of pubs. Barclays left in 2022.
Clean air, nice parks, hardly anybody fly-tips. The last bus on a Wednesday goes at 8.26pm, so if the poetry runs late you're walking home. Pretty. Pricey. Pleased with itself.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ledbury's 86 for broadband means it's crapper than 86% of towns.
- Broadband86/10015.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.7% across the Herefordshire council area
- Sewage spills45/100225 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene41/1001.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 56 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires41/1005.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson37/1006.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain28/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour26/10011.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions19/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution18/1004.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.0 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 |
| – | Ledbury | 11 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Ledbury by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 52.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 31% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 12 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 14.4 per 10,000 people, 4.2x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 7 hairdressers, 5 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 12.0 per 100,000 people, 3.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.6 per 10,000 people, 2.3x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 8.26pm 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%
- 16.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 5% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,557 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
Ledbury 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.