Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / Silsden
Silsden
45/100Crap Score
Steeton calls it Cobbydale.
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 45. 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
Bypass pending. Forever.
Nail-making town with a bent nail statue, and lorries mounting the pavement on Kirkgate.
Silsden used to make nails and has a big bent nail sculpture to prove it. The lorries mount the pavement to get down Kirkgate, and the bypass has been promised since forever. The buses miss the trains at Steeton. New houses keep going up. And some scrote keeps dumping rubbish in the lanes.
The rain turns up on 145 days a year and the sun manages 1,297 hours, so the canal towpath's mostly a puddle. Nearly half the town lives over 400 metres from a park or a swing, there's no swimming pool, and some homes don't even get the legal minimum broadband. The Silsdeners rioted at the police station once. Nowt as exciting since.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Silsden's 93 for fly-tipping means it's crapper than 93% of towns.
- Fly-tipping93/10032.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bradford council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Rain70/100145 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills66/100525 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires56/1006.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Food hygiene50/1002.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 40 food businesses with a rating
- Serious road collisions49/1002.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour17/1006.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Air pollution16/1005.0 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Criminal damage and arson13/1004.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband9/1002.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.5% across the Bradford council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | Honley | 56 |
| 31 | Otley | 55 |
| 32 | Ilkley | 48 |
| 33 | Guiseley | 48 |
| – | Silsden | 45 |
| 34 | Kippax | 44 |
| 35 | Yeadon | 43 |
| 36 | Garforth | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.37 | Wetherby | 16 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Silsden by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 57.2 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 25% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 1 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 1.7x the typical town's 0.7
- 3 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2022
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 2 hairdressers, 1 charity shop, 1 bank on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.34pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.4x the typical town's 0.5%
- 45.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.9x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,297 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 15% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Bradford council
- £2,361 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £31 less than the English average
- 13% of Bradford council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- 27 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Silsden 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.