Crap Towns / Bedfordshire / Stotfold
Stotfold
10/100Crap Score
Known as Stotland.
890th crappest of 984 towns, and 8th in Bedfordshire. 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
Got something to say about Stotfold? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Stotfold. Ask your mum for a lift.
A restored watermill, a steam fair, and no way of going anywhere without a car.
Stotfold's got a working watermill, a nature reserve and a steam fair, and it's quiet and safe. Locals call it the Fold. What it hasn't got is a station.
Or buses, once it's teatime. 7 leave the whole town after 7pm on a Wednesday, and the last one's gone at 7.09pm. So everyone drives, the new estates pile on more cars, and anyone too young to drive lives at the mercy of their mum.
The kitchens are the surprise. The share with a bad hygiene rating is nearly four times the typical town's, in a place this tidy. Nobody's going out for tea anyway. They'd never get home.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Stotfold's 80 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 80% of towns.
- Food hygiene80/1008.8% rated 0 to 2, of the 34 food businesses with a rating
- Broadband55/1006.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 13.3% across the Central Bedfordshire council area
- Air pollution52/1007.1 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
- Anti-social behaviour24/10011.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions18/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills16/10027.1 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain5/100110 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson4/1003.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires0/1000.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luton | 66 |
| 2 | Bedford | 61 |
| 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 |
| 8 | Stotfold | 10 |
| 9 | Flitwick | 4 |
| 10 | Biggleswade | 2 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Stotfold by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 33.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 56% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 183 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 149 per 10,000 people, 43.8x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2026
What's left on the high street
- 4 pubs, 3 hairdressers, 1 charity shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 50% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 1 public swimming pool open Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.09pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.9% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 1.8x the typical town's 0.5%
- 2.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 86% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,575 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
Stotfold 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.