Crap Towns / North Yorkshire / Scarborough
Scarborough
78/100Crap Score
213th crappest of 984 towns, and 4th in North Yorkshire. 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 gulls won
Castle, beaches, arcades and gulls that'll have your chips and crap on your car.
Scarborough has a castle, the bays and Peasholm Park, and a tired town centre full of empty shops. The gulls nick your food and crap on everything, and it takes forever to get there from York. Locals call it Scarbados. Also Scabby.
South Bay was rated Poor for bathing in 2025, and in May 2026 a major pollution incident put crude sewage in the water. Anti-social behaviour sits at three times the typical town's rate, and the vandalism's well over. There's 51 pubs. Scarbados has the drinking down, anyway.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Scarborough's 99 for anti-social behaviour means it's crapper than 99% of towns.
- Anti-social behaviour99/10042.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Criminal damage and arson93/10012.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene78/1003.9% rated 0 to 2, of the 566 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires75/10010.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Broadband69/1008.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.4% across the North Yorkshire council area
- Serious road collisions64/1002.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills62/100448 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain49/100127 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution14/1005.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping12/1005.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Yorkshire council area, 2023-24 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middlesbrough | 96 |
| 2 | Eston | 86 |
| 3 | York | 85 |
| 4 | Scarborough | 78 |
| 5 | Guisborough | 78 |
| 6 | Skipton | 74 |
| 7 | Redcar | 71 |
| 8 | Thornaby-on-Tees | 71 |
| 9 | Whitby | 64 |
Scarborough by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 115 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 1.5x the typical town's 76.2
- 21 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 2026
- 1 of 3 bathing waters here or within 2 km rated Excellent in 2025; 1 rated Poor
What's left on the high street
- 51 pubs, 28 hairdressers, 16 charity shops, 7 bookmakers, 3 vape shops, 10 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7.2% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (7 of 97) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 4.0%
- 16 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.7 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical town's 1.6
- 3 public swimming pools open; 2 closed for good since 2010 Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 29% lower than the typical English town's 0.7
- 3 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.53pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 12.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 18% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,598 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
North Yorkshire council
- £2,544 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £152 more than the English average
- 18% of North Yorkshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- 41 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Scarborough 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.