Crap Towns / North Ayrshire / Stevenston
Stevenston
87/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 87. 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
Dynamite town. Still at it.
The dynamite works made the town. The works went. The local firebugs kept the matches.
Stevenston made dynamite at Ardeer for over a century, out on the sand dunes where nobody would mind if it went bang. When the works wound down they opened a museum of inventions on the site instead. It didn't last.
The firebugs have taken up where the explosives left off. Deliberate fires run at 3.8 times the typical Scottish town's rate, and the grass and the dunes go up at about six times. The sewage spills are seven times the typical town's, and anti-social behaviour is twice the typical Scottish town's. Saltcoats reckons Stevenston's the worst of the Three Towns. On the fires, it's got a point.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Stevenston's 97 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Deliberate fires97/10085.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Anti-social behaviour97/10015.9 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Rain96/100177 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Sewage spills93/1001,993 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2025
- Criminal damage and arson86/10010.7 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Food hygiene64/1007.3% told to improve, of the 55 food businesses inspected
- Broadband61/1006.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 16.3% across the North Ayrshire council area
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Serious road collisions33/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Air pollution2/1003.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| – | Stevenston | 87 |
| 1 | Saltcoats | 87 |
| 2 | Irvine | 77 |
| 3 | Kilwinning | 58 |
| 4 | Largs | 46 |
| 5 | Ardrossan | 46 |
Stevenston by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 91.0 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Worse: 1.7x the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 1 problem reported on FixMyStreet in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.2 per 10,000 people, 94% lower than the typical Scottish town's 20.1
- Good Saltcoats/Ardrossan's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 2 pubs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 15.4% of takeaways inspected told to improve (2 of 13) Worse: 1.7x the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.5 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.22pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 10.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 33% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,397 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 9% lower than the typical town's 1,532
North Ayrshire council
- £1,686 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £33 more than the Scottish average
- 31% of North Ayrshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 14% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 50 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 37.4 per 100,000 residents, 8% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 89.6% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Stevenston 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.