Crap Towns / North Lanarkshire / Newarthill
Newarthill
67/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 67. 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
Newarthill. It's a village, honest.
An old coal village run into Motherwell, fighting off solar panels in a place that hardly sees the sun.
Newarthill has no public park on the map, and more than a quarter of its people live over 400 metres from anywhere to kick a ball. What it's getting instead is solar farms and battery sheds, in a village that gets 1,283 hours of sunshine a year. The fire raisers had a big couple of years as well: deliberate fires went from 8.6 per 10,000 people to 37.9.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Newarthill'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
- Serious road collisions75/1002.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills72/100641 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Anti-social behaviour66/10010.1 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Criminal damage and arson56/1007.5 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Deliberate fires50/10019.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene37/1002.9% told to improve, of the 35 food businesses inspected
- Air pollution24/1007.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband18/1002.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.6% across the North Lanarkshire council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Motherwell | 90 |
| 2 | Coatbridge | 85 |
| 3 | Airdrie | 83 |
| 4 | Wishaw | 75 |
| 5 | Bellshill | 73 |
| – | Newarthill | 67 |
| 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.
Newarthill by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 52.5 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: 2.9 per 10,000 people, 48% lower than the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.05pm 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%
- 27.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,283 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
Newarthill 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.