Crap Towns / West Yorkshire / South Kirkby

Welcome to

South Kirkby

The pit's gone. Someone's lobbing stones at the buses.
Twinned with a bus with a smashed window

62/100Crap Score

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 62. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

Have your say

Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

See the race

The public vote. It's separate from the Crap Score, and it closes on 31 December 2027.

Letters from the locals

Got something to say about South Kirkby? Write in.

Duck.

An old pit town where some idiots chuck things at passing buses.

South Kirkby lost its colliery, kept the football club named after it, and still scraps with South Elmsall and Hemsworth over the football. Lately some local idiots have taken to chucking stuff at cars and buses. Great plan, lads, that's the bus service gone. Never a copper about.

The bins go up in flames at over eleven times the typical town's rate, and burglary's twice the typical town's. The library went in 2011, and there's no public park on the map and no swimming pool. The storm overflows barely spill at all, to be fair, so the river's in better shape than the bus shelters. There's 8 pubs, plenty for arguing about Emsull.

What the score is made of

Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.

South Kirkby's 94 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 94% of towns.

  • Deliberate fires94/10033.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
  • Criminal damage and arson84/10010.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
  • Fly-tipping75/10016.7 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wakefield council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
  • Serious road collisions70/1003.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
  • Air pollution57/1008.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
  • Anti-social behaviour55/10010.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
  • Food hygiene50/1002.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 40 food businesses with a rating
  • Broadband21/1004.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.7% across the Wakefield council area
  • Rain14/100115 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
  • Sewage spills6/1001.5 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
Your patch: West YorkshireTowns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
PosTownNationalScore
25Brighouse335th66
26Morley337th66
27East Ardsley368th63
28Ossett372nd62
–South Kirkby–62
29Rothwell389th61
30Honley433rd56
31Otley448th55
32Ilkley514th48

South Kirkby by numbers

Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.

Crime, muck and dodgy water

What's left on the high street

Getting about, getting online, getting rained on

Wakefield council

Have a crap-off

South Kirkby against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.

South KirkbyCrap Score 62
v
South ElmsallCrap Score 91

Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.