Crap Towns / Suffolk / Leiston
Leiston
20/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 20. 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
Leiston. Next to Sizewell.
Quiet little town with a nuclear power station going up next door. The lorries never stop.
Leiston used to build steam engines, and now it lives next to Sizewell, where they're building another nuclear power station. So the town gets the lorries, the noise, and rents going up because every builder needs a bed. The town centre needs sorting.
The High Street is charity shops and hairdressers, with 6 times the typical town's charity shops per head. The buses stop at 7.31pm on a Wednesday and there isn't one on a Sunday at all. For some reason there are 2 public swimming pools, nearly five times the typical town per head. Nothing else to do, so you might as well swim. It's well behaved, mind. Everyone's too tired.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Leiston's 77 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 77% of towns.
- Sewage spills77/100767 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband76/10011.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.6% across the East Suffolk council area
- Food hygiene68/1005.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 40 food businesses with a rating
- Criminal damage and arson37/1006.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping30/1007.6 incidents per 1,000 people a year, East Suffolk council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution28/1005.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires27/1003.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions19/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain10/100113 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour7/1005.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lowestoft | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Sudbury | 30 |
| – | Leiston | 20 |
| 3 | Ipswich | 15 |
| 4 | Haverhill | 11 |
| 5 | Newmarket | 9 |
| 6 | Stowmarket | 7 |
| 7 | Felixstowe | 6 |
| 8 | Woodbridge | 4 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Leiston by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 54.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 28% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 4 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 6.8 per 10,000 people, 2x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 5 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 16.9 per 100,000 people, 5x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.4 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 3.4 per 10,000 people, 4.9x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.31pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 31.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,721 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 12% higher than the typical town's 1,532
East Suffolk council
- £2,335 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £57 less than the English average
- 22% of Suffolk County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 38% higher than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Leiston 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.