Crap Towns / Warwickshire / Rugby
Rugby
54/100Crap Score
454th crappest of 984 towns, and 4th in Warwickshire. Higher scores are crapper.
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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
Rugby. Named after the posh school.
Invented a sport. Lost its shops to the retail park. Mostly brags about the sport.
Rugby gave the world rugby after a schoolboy picked up the ball and ran with it, and the town's never let anyone forget it. It did early jet engine work and holograms too, and nobody's heard about either because of the bloody ball. The centre is empty shops, everyone goes to the retail parks and some call it Drugby.
The food is where it really goes wrong. The share of food places scoring 0 to 2 on hygiene is 4 times the typical town's, and for takeaways it's 3.4 times. Rugby council logs fly-tipping at twice the typical council's rate. The buses pack in early and there's no nightlife to miss anyway.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Rugby's 97 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Food hygiene97/1009.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 401 food businesses with a rating
- Fly-tipping86/10022.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Rugby council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution63/1008.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Anti-social behaviour49/10015.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills39/100161 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain38/100123 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Serious road collisions34/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson30/1005.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires22/1003.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband14/1001.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.1% across the Rugby council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bedworth | 70 |
| 2 | Warwick | 64 |
| 3 | Nuneaton | 62 |
| 4 | Rugby | 54 |
| 5 | Royal Leamington Spa | 46 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.6 | Stratford-upon-Avon | 37 |
| 7 | Kenilworth | 26 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Rugby by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 66.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 13% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 333 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 42.6 per 10,000 people, 12.5x 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
- 40 pubs, 44 hairdressers, 11 charity shops, 5 bookmakers, 4 vape shops, 10 banks, 4 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 13.4% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (9 of 67) Worse: 3.4x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 1.3 per 100,000 people, 62% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 14 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.8 per 10,000 people, 13% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 8 public swimming pools open; 2 closed for good since 2010 Better: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 43% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.29pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 12.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,516 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Rugby council
- £2,483 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £91 more than the English average
- 13% of Warwickshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- 2 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Rugby 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.