Crap Towns / North Lanarkshire / New Stevenston
New Stevenston
70/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 70. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
New Stevenston. Mind the overflow.
A wee mining village between Motherwell and Bellshill, sitting on more spilled sewage than it knows what to do with.
New Stevenston's claim to fame is having Holytown's railway station. Its other one is sewage. The overflows round it put out six and a half times the typical town's spill hours per head. There's no public park on the map, so the weans get the swings and the Coby woods get the broken glass.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
New Stevenston's 92 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Sewage spills92/1001,815 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Rain92/100170 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour66/10010.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Deliberate fires63/10026.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene60/1008.0% told to improve, of the 25 food businesses inspected
- Criminal damage and arson59/1007.7 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Broadband35/1006.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.6% across the North Lanarkshire council area
- Serious road collisions33/1001.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution33/1008.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Motherwell | 90 |
| 2 | Coatbridge | 85 |
| 3 | Airdrie | 83 |
| 4 | Wishaw | 75 |
| 5 | Bellshill | 73 |
| – | New Stevenston | 70 |
| 6 | Kilsyth | 61 |
| 7 | Viewpark | 53 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Cumbernauld | 34 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
New Stevenston by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 54.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) About the same: About the same as the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 2 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.39pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Against the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Better: 65% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,292 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 16% lower than the typical town's 1,532
North Lanarkshire council
- £1,555 Band D council tax (2026-27) Better: £98 less than the Scottish average
- 33% of North Lanarkshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 8% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 119 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld About the same: 34.9 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 87.9% 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
New Stevenston 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.