Crap Towns / Bedfordshire / Shefford
Shefford
10/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 10. 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
Sheep crossed here once. Nothing since.
Shefford's name means sheep ford. Its rivers are called the Flit and the Hit.
Shefford is a little market town where the rivers are called the Flit and the Hit, which is the funniest thing about it. It's tidy and the water's clean, but there's more bother than a town this size should have. The shoplifters are busy and the anti-social behaviour runs above the typical town's.
The public pool shut for good in 2025, and there's no public park either, just play spaces. The Sunday buses barely bother. Per head it's got twice the typical town's bookies, which is about all the entertainment going.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Shefford's 69 for anti-social behaviour means it's crapper than 69% of towns.
- Anti-social behaviour69/10018.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution48/1006.9 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping40/1009.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Central Bedfordshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband39/1003.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 13.3% across the Central Bedfordshire council area
- Criminal damage and arson32/1005.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene29/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 30 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires25/1003.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions7/1000.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain7/100112 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Houghton Regis | 60 |
| 4 | Dunstable | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Kempston | 27 |
| 6 | Sandy | 17 |
| 7 | Leighton Buzzard | 13 |
| – | Shefford | 10 |
| 8 | Stotfold | 10 |
| 9 | Flitwick | 4 |
| 10 | Biggleswade | 2 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Shefford by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 79.9 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 76.2
- 82 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 112 per 10,000 people, 160x the typical town's 0.7
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 3 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.4 per 10,000 people, 13% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open; 1 closed for good since 2010 Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 9.26pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 0.0% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Better: Against 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
Central Bedfordshire council
- £2,516 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £124 more than the English average
- 13% of Central Bedfordshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- 17 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Shefford 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.