Crap Towns / Cambridgeshire / Sawtry
Sawtry
16/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 16. 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
Sawtry. Nice until you need anything.
An old salt-trading village with new houses arriving faster than school places or doctors.
Sawtry's a quiet village by the old Great North Road with hardly any crime, a salt cart on its village sign and a couple of woods worth a walk. New houses keep coming and nobody's added any school places or doctors, so it's getting bigger without getting any more useful.
Storm overflows round here spill for four and a half times the typical town's hours per head. Nobody ordered that either. The last bus pulls out at 7.22pm and there's nothing at all on a Sunday, and superfast broadband misses 2.3% of premises, so a night in isn't much cop either.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Sawtry's 86 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 86% of towns.
- Sewage spills86/1001,222 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping68/10014.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Huntingdonshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution43/1006.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Broadband42/1005.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 10.0% across the Huntingdonshire council area
- Food hygiene36/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 19 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires28/100
- Anti-social behaviour12/1008.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain8/100112 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson4/1003.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions2/1000.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | St Ives | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.6 | Chatteris | 29 |
| 7 | March | 28 |
| 8 | Ely | 24 |
| 9 | St Neots | 18 |
| 10 | Whittlesey | 17 |
| – | Sawtry | 16 |
| 11 | Soham | 14 |
| 12 | Cambourne | 1 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Sawtry by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 44.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 42% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 3 reports of litter and bins on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 5.1 per 10,000 people, 5.7x the typical town's 0.9
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2019
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs, 2 hairdressers, 1 charity shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Better: 1.7 per 10,000 people, 6% higher than 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
- 7.22pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 2.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 4.6x the typical town's 0.5%
- 15.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here About the same: About the same as the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,612 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 5% higher than 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
Sawtry 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.