Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Littleborough
Littleborough
84/100Crap Score
154th crappest of 984 towns, and 27th 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
Stuck on the A58 again.
Hollingworth Lake gets the day-trippers. Littleborough gets their cars.
Littleborough's big attraction is Hollingworth Lake, which the Victorians called the Weighvers' Seaport. It's a reservoir. On a sunny Sunday the whole of Rochdale drives up to look at it and the main road sets solid. They've been on about a relief road for years.
Sunny Sundays don't come round often. It's wet on 177 days a year, over 1,300 mm of it, and the sun shows its face for 1,303 hours, so the seaport mostly gets the rain. Plenty of pubs, so at least you can wait it out.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Littleborough's 96 for rain means it's crapper than 96% of towns.
- Rain96/100177 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping88/10023.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Rochdale council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires81/10014.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson71/1008.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Food hygiene61/1003.4% rated 0 to 2, of the 89 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour60/10016.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Serious road collisions57/1002.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution52/1008.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband51/1008.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 8.0% across the Rochdale council area
- Sewage spills46/100230 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 23 | Uppermill | 87 |
| 24 | Royton | 86 |
| 25 | Ince-in-Makerfield | 86 |
| 26 | Bury | 85 |
| 27 | Littleborough | 84 |
| 28 | Chadderton | 84 |
| 29 | Old Trafford | 83 |
| 30 | Irlam | 83 |
| 31 | Wythenshawe | 83 |
Littleborough 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
- 7 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 5.8 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2020
What's left on the high street
- 11 pubs, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 6.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 15) Worse: 1.7x the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) About the same: 1.6 per 10,000 people, about the same as 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
- 11.44pm last bus out on a Wednesday 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%
- 41.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.7x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,303 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 15% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Rochdale council
Have a crap-off
Littleborough 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.