Crap Towns / Merseyside / Prescot
Prescot
83/100Crap Score
172nd crappest of 984 towns, and 7th 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
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agree it's crap have defended it
Wanted a pool. Got a theatre.
Prescot made watches and cables. Now the big local campaign is for somewhere to park.
Prescot used to make watches and cables, and now it's got a new Shakespeare playhouse, which nobody saw coming. Locals asked for a swimming pool and an ice rink. They got a theatre. Visitors park in everyone's street all day, the library's gone and the shops are quiet in the daytime.
The takeaways are the real drama. Nearly one in five with a rating gets 0 to 2 from the hygiene inspectors, nearly five times the typical town's share. Drug offences run at three times the typical town's rate and some idiot sets a fire nearly three times as often. There's one charity shop and one bank.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Prescot's 94 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 94% of towns.
- Food hygiene94/1007.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 210 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires86/10016.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Rain78/100154 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution74/10012.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping72/10015.8 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Knowsley council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Criminal damage and arson70/1008.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour64/10011.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions64/1002.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills27/10079.5 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband8/1002.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 3.0% across the Knowsley council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Bootle | 92 |
| 4 | St Helens | 90 |
| 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 |
Prescot by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 85.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 13% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 19 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 4.8 per 10,000 people, 41% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 3 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
What's left on the high street
- 22 pubs, 19 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 3 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 1 bank, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 19.4% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (7 of 36) Worse: 4.9x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 2.5 per 100,000 people, 26% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Rainhill Library (2024)
- 5 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 19% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open; 2 closed for good since 2010 Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.55am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.5% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 0.5%
- 13.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 15% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,460 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Knowsley council
- £2,488 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £96 more than the English average
- 14% of Knowsley council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 13% lower than England's 16%
- 7 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Prescot 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.