Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Leigh
Leigh
88/100Crap Score
117th crappest of 984 towns, and 22nd 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
Leigh hasn't had a train since 1969
Leythers are Lobby Gobblers, and Wigan calls the whole town a bus stop. They hate that.
Leigh's a big town with no railway station, which takes some doing. You get the guided bus to Manchester, if it turns up and you can get on. The Leopards play rugby league at the Sports Village, the locals eat lobby, and Pennington Flash is a pit that sank and flooded.
The fire brigade gets called out to a deliberate fire more than seven times as often as in the typical town, and the bins go up nearly sixteen times as often. Food businesses are more than four times as likely as the typical town's to be rated 0 to 2 on hygiene, and one in six takeaways is. Shite all round.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Leigh's 98 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 98% of towns.
- Food hygiene98/10010.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 353 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires97/10041.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Sewage spills86/1001,194 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain78/100154 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson76/1009.2 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Anti-social behaviour66/10017.5 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Air pollution66/10010.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions65/1002.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping35/1008.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wigan council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband18/1004.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.5% across the Wigan council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Worsley | 90 |
| 19 | Denton | 89 |
| 20 | Stalybridge | 89 |
| 21 | Mossley | 89 |
| 22 | Leigh | 88 |
| 23 | Uppermill | 87 |
| 24 | Royton | 86 |
| 25 | Ince-in-Makerfield | 86 |
| 26 | Bury | 85 |
Leigh by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 89.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 17% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 10 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 2.2 per 10,000 people, 2x the typical town's 1.1
- 10 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 26 pubs, 40 hairdressers, 9 charity shops, 6 bookmakers, 5 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 16.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (11 of 66) Worse: 4.2x the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 4.4 per 100,000 people, 29% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 44% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 2.23am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later 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%
- 27.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,432 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Wigan council
Have a crap-off
Leigh 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.