Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Normanton
Normanton
68/100Crap Score
Known as Stormy Normy.
312th crappest of 984 towns, and 23rd in West Yorkshire. 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 Normanton? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Where's the market gone?
The council knocked down the market and left a slab of concrete. Locals shop elsewhere.
Normanton used to be a big railway junction with a platform so long it was famous for it. Then the trains went, and the council knocked down the market and put down bare concrete instead. Now locals go to other towns for a proper market. Plenty of pubs, and the roads are worse than most for serious crashes. Normanhattan, they call it.
The overflows nearby dump sewage for over two and a half times the typical town's hours, and some idiot keeps setting fire to the grass. Halifax shut and left a banking hub. There's 18 pubs and 12 hairdressers, so there's somewhere to go once you've given up on the market.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Normanton's 81 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 81% of towns.
- Serious road collisions81/1003.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution77/10010.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires76/10011.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping75/10016.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wakefield council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Sewage spills75/100719 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson60/1007.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour37/1008.7 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene32/1001.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 127 food businesses with a rating
- Rain25/100119 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Broadband17/1003.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.7% across the Wakefield council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 19 | Liversedge | 80 |
| 20 | Gomersal and Birkenshaw | 79 |
| 21 | Pudsey | 72 |
| 22 | Todmorden | 70 |
| 23 | Normanton | 68 |
| 24 | Featherstone | 68 |
| 25 | Brighouse | 66 |
| 26 | Morley | 66 |
| 27 | East Ardsley | 63 |
Normanton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 85.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 12% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 11 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 5.0 per 10,000 people, 47% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2023
What's left on the high street
- 18 pubs, 12 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 2 vape shops, 2 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 26) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 4.5 per 100,000 people, 32% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 public swimming pool open Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 29% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.36pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 32% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,413 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 8% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Wakefield council
- £2,297 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £95 less than the English average
- 19% of Wakefield council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 19% higher than England's 16%
- 5 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Normanton 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.