Crap Towns / Merseyside / Newton-le-Willows
Newton-le-Willows
66/100Crap Score
340th crappest of 984 towns, and 9th in Merseyside. 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
Got something to say about Newton-le-Willows? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Newton. Or Earlestown. Whatever.
Big railway history, a famous viaduct, and an argument about which end is the real Newton.
Newton-le-Willows was there at the start of the railways and built locomotives for years, and the Sankey Viaduct's still standing to prove it. Now it argues with Earlestown about which end counts as proper Newton, while commuters park all over the streets by the station.
Earlestown's conservation area is on the Heritage at Risk register, which gives Newton something to say. A 0 to 2 hygiene rating is more than three times as common here as in the typical town, and the overflows run for five times as long. Both ends can share that.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Newton-le-Willows's 92 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Food hygiene92/1007.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 127 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills89/1001,411 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain83/100160 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires76/10011.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping66/10011.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, St. Helens council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution63/10010.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson49/1007.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour31/1008.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions22/1001.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband11/1003.0% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.1% across the St. Helens council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Kirkby | 86 |
| 6 | Wallasey | 86 |
| 7 | Prescot | 83 |
| 8 | Huyton with Roby | 78 |
| 9 | Newton-le-Willows | 66 |
| 10 | Haydock | 63 |
| 11 | Litherland | 59 |
| 12 | Bebington | 50 |
| 13 | Crosby | 48 |
Newton-le-Willows by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 82.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 8% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 2 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical town's 0.7
- 6 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2021
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 8.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 23) Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 cash machine closure assessed by LINK
- 4 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
- 1 public swimming pool open Worse: 0.4 per 10,000 people, 43% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.25am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 1.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 91% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,458 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
St. Helens council
- £2,403 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £11 more than the English average
- 13% of St. Helens council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- 3 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Newton-le-Willows 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.