Crap Towns / Leicestershire / Shepshed
Shepshed
13/100Crap Score
858th crappest of 984 towns, and 9th in Leicestershire. 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
Butthole Lane. That's the headline.
A nice enough town that's very proud of having a street called Butthole Lane.
Shepshed has a street called Butthole Lane, and the locals won't hear of changing it. The Dynamo fans sing about it. Good for them. Otherwise it's a perfectly decent old wool and hosiery town with not much trouble. It once had its own canal, which barely lasted, and that's about the level of drama.
The new houses keep going up on the fields with no schools or doctors to go with them. Somebody's setting fire to what's left, at 1.8 times the typical town's rate, mostly grass and woods, and they've shot up lately. Back to Butthole Lane.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Shepshed's 78 for air pollution means it's crapper than 78% of towns.
- Air pollution78/1009.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires74/10010.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson60/1007.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain49/100127 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills43/100214 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Food hygiene31/1001.3% rated 0 to 2, of the 77 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour25/10011.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband21/1003.4% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 6.3% across the Charnwood council area
- Fly-tipping14/1005.5 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Charnwood council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Serious road collisions2/1000.7 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Melton Mowbray | 33 |
| 6 | Leicester Forest East and Kirby Muxloe | 32 |
| 7 | Enderby and Narborough | 29 |
| 8 | Whitwick | 27 |
| 9 | Shepshed | 13 |
| 10 | Hinckley | 11 |
| 11 | Mountsorrel | 10 |
| 12 | Earl Shilton | 9 |
| 13 | Ashby-de-la-Zouch | 7 |
Shepshed by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 67.1 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 12% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 2 reports of abandoned vehicles on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 44% higher than the typical town's 0.9
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 3 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bookmaker, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.7 per 10,000 people, 56% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
- 2 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.20pm 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%
- 9.7% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 37% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,499 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Charnwood council
- £2,406 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £14 more than the English average
- 11% of Leicestershire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 31% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Shepshed 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.