Crap Towns / Leicestershire / Market Harborough
Market Harborough
1/100Crap Score
974th crappest of 984 towns, and 16th in Leicestershire. 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
Where's the harbour, then?
Market Harborough is clean, safe and pleased with itself. People think it's by the seaside. It isn't.
Market Harborough has an old grammar school on wooden stilts, a canal basin and none of the usual crap. No bother, no fly-tipping, clean kitchens, safe roads. Locals make do with moaning about the traffic lights on The Square and the parking machines. People still think it's by the sea. It's in Leicestershire.
The one thing Harbs can't hang on to is a bank. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and 2 others have announced closures since 2022, which per head is 6.1 times the typical town's rate, so it's a banking hub now. On a Wednesday the last bus is at 9.27pm. Nobody's complained. Nobody here complains about anything that isn't a traffic light.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Market Harborough's 66 for broadband means it's crapper than 66% of towns.
- Broadband66/1006.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 19.2% across the Harborough council area
- Sewage spills54/100322 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Air pollution42/1007.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.8 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain41/100124 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson27/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour11/1008.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene7/1000.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 162 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires4/1001.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping4/1003.6 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Harborough council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions2/1000.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Mountsorrel | 10 |
| 12 | Earl Shilton | 9 |
| 13 | Ashby-de-la-Zouch | 7 |
| 14 | Lutterworth | 2 |
| 15 | Syston | 1 |
| 16 | Market Harborough | 1 |
| 17 | Wigston | 1 |
| 18 | Birstall | 1 |
| 19 | Oadby | 0 |
Market Harborough by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 60.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 21% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 10 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 4.1 per 10,000 people, 21% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 4 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 13 pubs, 16 hairdressers, 7 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 3 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 23) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 5 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 20.7 per 100,000 people, 6.1x the typical town's 3.4
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.9 per 10,000 people, 1.8x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 9.27pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 9.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 41% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,520 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Harborough council
- £2,390 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £2 less than the English average
- 11% of Leicestershire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 31% lower than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Market Harborough 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.