Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Lees
Lees
67/100Crap Score
325th crappest of 984 towns, and 48th in Greater Manchester. 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
Somewhere between Oldham and nice.
Careful drivers and a clean river. The kitchens let it down.
Lees is where Oldham stops and Saddleworth hasn't started yet, so it gets the traffic from both. The school run jams up the cul-de-sacs and the queue into Oldham crawls. The river's clean and hardly anyone crashes, mostly because nobody's moving.
It pisses down on 173 days a year and the sun puts in 1,277 hours, so the walks out to the Pennines are done in a cagoule. The kitchens fail their hygiene inspections four times as often as the typical town's, and 2 of the 11 takeaways with a rating fail too. Some of those kitchens. Bloody hell.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Lees's 94 for rain means it's crapper than 94% of towns.
- Rain94/100173 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene90/1009.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 62 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping86/10022.9 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Oldham council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires76/10011.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution75/10010.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson73/1008.8 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Anti-social behaviour61/10016.9 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Broadband22/1005.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 2.8% across the Oldham council area
- Serious road collisions13/1001.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills6/1001.3 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 44 | Shaw | 72 |
| 45 | Droylsden | 70 |
| 46 | Tyldesley | 68 |
| 47 | Westhoughton | 68 |
| 48 | Lees | 67 |
| 49 | Ramsbottom | 65 |
| 50 | Marple | 64 |
| 51 | Golborne | 62 |
| 52 | Reddish | 60 |
Lees by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 102 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 34% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 11 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 8.7 per 10,000 people, 2.6x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 15 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 18.2% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 11) Worse: 4.6x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 50% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
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
- Under 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Far lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 25.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.6x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,277 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 17% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Oldham council
Have a crap-off
Lees 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.