Crap Towns / Fife / Leven
Leven
28/100Crap Score
704th crappest of 984 towns, and 6th in Fife. 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
The trains are back. Now what?
A beach, a prom and a railway they asked for for half a century. The High Street missed the train.
Leven's got a big sandy beach, a prom and, since 2024, its railway back after more than half a century without one. The trains are rammed. With what, nobody's sure. The High Street gives you a clue: nearly seven times the vape shops a town its size should have, and two banks have fucked off, which for its size is nearly six times the typical town's share of closures.
The top crime here is shoplifting, at about three times the typical Scottish town's rate, and the bus station is where the bampots gather of an evening. The fires have calmed down, mind. A couple of years back they were at it something terrible.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Leven's 79 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 79% of towns.
- Deliberate fires79/10036.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson66/1008.2 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Broadband57/1005.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.9% across the Fife council area
- Anti-social behaviour54/1008.8 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Rain48/100127 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills34/100126 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Food hygiene15/1002.0% told to improve, of the 99 food businesses inspected
- Serious road collisions14/1001.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution4/1004.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirkcaldy | 76 |
| 2 | Cowdenbeath | 62 |
| 3 | Methil | 53 |
| 4 | Glenrothes | 52 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Rosyth | 30 |
| 6 | Leven | 28 |
| 7 | Dunfermline | 18 |
| 8 | St Andrews | 5 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Leven by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 70.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 29% higher than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 1 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 82% lower than the typical Scottish town's 5.6
- Good Leven's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 9 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 2 vape shops, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways inspected told to improve (0 of 14) Better: Against the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 19.8 per 100,000 people, 5.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.0 per 10,000 people, 1.9x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.43am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later 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%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: Against the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,430 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 7% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Fife council
- £1,574 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £79 less than the Scottish average
- 32% of Fife council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 11% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 127 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, 2 upheld About the same: 34.1 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 96.1% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Leven 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.