Crap Towns / Cambridgeshire / Peterborough
Peterborough
70/100Crap Score
Known as Peterburglar.
292nd crappest of 984 towns, and 3rd in Cambridgeshire. 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 Peterborough? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Posh? Pull the other one.
The football club's called the Posh. Nothing else in Peterborough is.
Peterborough's football team is called the Posh, and that's the only posh thing in the place. City centre shops keep shutting, the shopping centre is knackered and they ripped the fountains out. The nightlife is dead. Ferry Meadows is nice. Go there. Stay there.
The fly-tippers have the run of it. The council logged 10,474 dumps in a year, more than four times the typical English council's rate, and most of it on its own land. Since 2010, 4 public pools have shut for good and 3 of them aren't being replaced. There's hardly a public loo in the city either. The yobs and vandals keep it lively, and the locals call it Peterburglar for a reason.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Peterborough's 97 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Fly-tipping97/10047.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Peterborough council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Criminal damage and arson85/10010.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour82/10022.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution76/1009.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires63/100
- Serious road collisions63/1002.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills41/100188 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene11/1001.4% rated 0 to 2, of the 1,146 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband10/1002.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.2% across the Peterborough council area
- Rain6/100111 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntingdon | 79 |
| 2 | Wisbech | 78 |
| 3 | Peterborough | 70 |
| 4 | Cambridge | 63 |
| 5 | St Ives | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.6 | Chatteris | 29 |
| 7 | March | 28 |
| 8 | Ely | 24 |
| 9 | St Neots | 18 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Peterborough by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 114 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 50% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 8,429 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 442 per 10,000 people, 401.8x the typical town's 1.1
- 11 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 44 pubs, 54 hairdressers, 21 charity shops, 13 bookmakers, 3 vape shops, 14 banks, 9 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1.2% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 162) Better: 70% lower than the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Better: 1.6 per 100,000 people, 53% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 10 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 69% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 11 public swimming pools open; 4 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.6 per 10,000 people, 14% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 5 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.08am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 5.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 63% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,614 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 5% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Peterborough council
- £2,293 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £99 less than the English average
- 5% of Peterborough council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 69% lower than England's 16%
- 8 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Peterborough 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.