Crap Towns / Shropshire / Newport
Newport
29/100Crap Score
703rd crappest of 984 towns, and 3rd in Shropshire. 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
Newport. The Shropshire one.
A Georgian High Street with agricultural students making the evening noise.
Newport's got a handsome Georgian High Street, plenty of pubs and more public toilets than it knows what to do with. Not a lot else. The students from the agricultural college get loud and lagered on a night out, and without a car you're going nowhere. You'll struggle to get a haircut.
Crime's low and nothing gets set on fire. Then there's Telford and Wrekin council, whose fly-tipping runs at 2.6 times the typical English council's rate, most of it dumped on the council's own land. The canal arm's disused, and the latest serious pollution incident put storm sewage in the water. Lovely Georgian frontages, though.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Newport's 91 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Fly-tipping91/10028.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Telford and Wrekin council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband72/10011.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 12.9% across the Telford and Wrekin council area
- Rain60/100133 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills54/100322 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene49/1002.4% rated 0 to 2, of the 84 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution23/1005.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions20/1001.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour8/1007.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson7/1003.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires3/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Telford | 59 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Shrewsbury | 39 |
| 3 | Newport | 29 |
| 4 | Oswestry | 28 |
| 5 | Bridgnorth | 23 |
| 6 | Ludlow | 19 |
| 7 | Market Drayton | 8 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Newport by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 47.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 38% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 8 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 5.6 per 10,000 people, 1.6x the typical town's 3.4
- 7 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 9 pubs, 1 hairdresser, 2 charity shops, 2 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 7.0 per 100,000 people, 2.1x the typical town's 3.4
- 10 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 7.0 per 10,000 people, 4.4x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.16pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 4.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 70% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,453 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 5% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Telford and Wrekin council
- £2,256 Band D council tax (2026-27) Better: £136 less than the English average
- 5% of Telford and Wrekin council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 69% lower than England's 16%
- 4 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Newport 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.