Crap Towns / Lancashire / Poulton-le-Fylde
Poulton-le-Fylde
61/100Crap Score
386th crappest of 984 towns, and 28th in Lancashire. Higher scores are crapper.
Have your say
Crap Town of the Year 2026/27
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Letters from the locals
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agree it's crap have defended it
Another shop's a bar now
The posh bit next to Blackpool. Every shop that closes becomes a bar.
Poulton thinks of itself as the posh bit next to Blackpool, which isn't a high bar. It still has the old stocks and whipping post in the Market Place, which some of the weekend crowd could do with. Every shop that shuts turns into another bar or takeaway, so the town gets louder every weekend.
There are 16 hairdressers and more vape shops per head than most towns, so everyone looks the part. Four in ten people live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and the bad crashes happen at nearly twice the typical town's rate.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Poulton-le-Fylde's 92 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Serious road collisions92/1004.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain74/100150 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour70/10018.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills68/100560 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene67/1003.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 108 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping29/1007.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wyre council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband23/1003.2% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.6% across the Wyre council area
- Deliberate fires21/1003.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson19/1004.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution17/1006.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 24 | Leyland | 69 |
| 25 | Cleveleys | 64 |
| 26 | Heysham | 63 |
| 27 | Barnoldswick | 63 |
| 28 | Poulton-le-Fylde | 61 |
| 29 | Ormskirk | 51 |
| 30 | Thornton | 48 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.31 | Lytham St Anne's | 39 |
| 32 | Euxton | 35 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Poulton-le-Fylde by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 63.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 17% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 11 reports of fly-tipping on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 8.6 per 10,000 people, 7.8x the typical town's 1.1
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2018
What's left on the high street
- 10 pubs, 16 hairdressers, 4 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 2 vape shops, 2 banks on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 6.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 15) Worse: 1.7x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 7.8 per 100,000 people, 2.3x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.3 per 10,000 people, 44% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 1.6 per 10,000 people, 2.3x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.15pm 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%
- 41.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.6x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,534 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Wyre council
Have a crap-off
Poulton-le-Fylde 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.