Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Prestwich
Prestwich
79/100Crap Score
210th crappest of 984 towns, and 39th in Greater Manchester. 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
Prestwich has gone all sourdough
Heaton Park's on the doorstep and there's a flat white on every corner. The house prices are daft.
Prestwich calls itself the Didsbury of the North. Didsbury's in Manchester, lads. The village has gone all small plates and craft beer, they spent years knocking the old shopping centre down, and you can't buy a terrace without a second mortgage.
Heaton Park's on the doorstep, which is handy, because Prestwich itself has one public park. The air's 1.7 times the typical town's for nitrogen dioxide, the banks have announced three closures since 2022, and there's one public toilet and no pool. Some of those trendy kitchens are filthy, two and a half times as likely to be rated 0 to 2 as the typical town's.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Prestwich's 90 for air pollution means it's crapper than 90% of towns.
- Air pollution90/10013.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene87/1006.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 149 food businesses with a rating
- Rain82/100159 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills74/100691 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping73/10015.8 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bury council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires71/1009.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson58/1007.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Anti-social behaviour45/10014.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Broadband38/1007.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.8% across the Bury council area
- Serious road collisions29/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | Radcliffe | 81 |
| 36 | Whitefield | 81 |
| 37 | Little Lever | 80 |
| 38 | Dukinfield | 79 |
| 39 | Prestwich | 79 |
| 40 | Wigan | 77 |
| 41 | Hyde | 75 |
| 42 | Atherton | 74 |
| 43 | Bredbury and Woodley | 72 |
Prestwich by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 87.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 15% 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 About the same: 3.5 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2018
What's left on the high street
- 15 pubs, 8 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 8.1% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (3 of 37) Worse: 2x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 9.5 per 100,000 people, 2.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Sedgley Park library (2015)
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.3 per 10,000 people, 81% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open; 1 closed for good since 2010 Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.40am 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%
- 25.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 1.7x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,368 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 11% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Bury council
Have a crap-off
Prestwich 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.