Crap Towns / South Ayrshire / Prestwick
Prestwick
25/100Crap Score
736th crappest of 984 towns, and 2nd in South Ayrshire. 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
The Open started here. Then left.
Where the Open began, and an airport that spent years telling everyone it was Glasgow's.
Prestwick held the first Open in 1860, then the golf moved on to bigger places and left it the airport, which spent years calling itself Glasgow's and branding itself pure dead brilliant. Glasgow is thirty miles up the road. The planes still come in low over Main Street, and the military ones run their engines at all hours.
It's a tidy, decent town and it knows it. The food inspectors went round 141 places and didn't find a thing to complain about. It also has nearly five times as many Greggs per head as the typical town, which may be connected. Shoplifting runs at more than twice the typical Scottish town's, so somebody's not paying for their steak bakes.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Prestwick's 85 for rain means it's crapper than 85% of towns.
- Rain85/100162 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions63/1001.9 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband58/1004.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 18.6% across the South Ayrshire council area
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Deliberate fires50/10019.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Sewage spills36/100132 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Anti-social behaviour30/1006.8 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Criminal damage and arson9/1004.0 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Air pollution4/1004.7 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene2/1000.0% told to improve, of the 141 food businesses inspected
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ayr | 59 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Prestwick | 25 |
| 3 | Troon | 14 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Prestwick by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 40.4 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 26% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 6 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 4.1 per 10,000 people, 27% lower than the typical Scottish town's 5.6
- Excellent Prestwick's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 12 hairdressers, 5 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 bank, 2 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways inspected told to improve (0 of 14) Better: Against the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.7 per 10,000 people, 56% lower than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.16am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 9.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 39% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,412 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 8% lower than the typical town's 1,532
South Ayrshire council
- £1,695 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £42 more than the Scottish average
- 38% of South Ayrshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 6% higher than Scotland's 36%
- 39 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld About the same: 35.0 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 90.8% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Prestwick 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.