Crap Towns / Cambridgeshire / Ramsey
Ramsey
60/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 60. 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
They parked on a river.
They buried a river under the main street and parked on top. Now they want the cars gone too.
Ramsey's got a river running under the main street, Great Whyte, because they covered it over years ago and parked on top. Now they want to pedestrianise it and lose the parking, so everyone's fuming. This used to be an island in the Fens with its own docks, which tells you how long it's been since anything good came in by boat.
The High Street does vape shops, bookies and hairdressers, with nearly six times the typical town's vape shops per head. The bit of river still out in the open gets storm overflows spilling into it for nearly fifteen times the typical town's hours. The yobs are busier than the typical town's by nearly half again, and the last bus goes at 7.48pm, so they're not going anywhere.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Ramsey's 99 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Sewage spills99/1004,094 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson79/1009.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour78/10021.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping68/10014.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Huntingdonshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions41/1002.1 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution33/1005.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.9 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires32/100
- Food hygiene23/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 43 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband23/1002.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 10.0% across the Huntingdonshire council area
- Rain3/100109 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 |
| – | Ramsey | 60 |
| 5 | St Ives | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.6 | Chatteris | 29 |
| 7 | March | 28 |
| 8 | Ely | 24 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Ramsey by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 91.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 21% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 problem reported on FixMyStreet in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 92% lower than the typical town's 20.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2023
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker, 1 vape shop, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.5 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 2.4x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.48pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 33.5% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,592 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Huntingdonshire council
- £2,556 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £164 more than the English average
- 7% of Cambridgeshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 56% lower than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Ramsey 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.