Crap Towns / Suffolk / Stowmarket
Stowmarket
7/100Crap Score
915th crappest of 984 towns, and 6th in Suffolk. 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
Nothing on.
Stowmarket's got a museum about food. That's the big night out sorted.
Stowmarket's a quiet Suffolk town with a train to Ipswich and a museum about food. Locals call it Slowmarket, and that's being kind. The High Street is struggling and full of charity shops, the leisure centre's stuck in the past and there's sod all to do compared with anywhere nearby.
Not that you'd get to anywhere nearby. On a Sunday not one bus leaves Stowmarket. Not one. On a Wednesday the last one's gone at 7.31pm. Halifax and HSBC have packed up and left as well. Crime's low. So's everything else.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Stowmarket's 96 for broadband means it's crapper than 96% of towns.
- Broadband96/10019.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 37.6% across the Mid Suffolk council area
- Food hygiene58/1003.1% rated 0 to 2, of the 97 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution56/1007.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills43/100210 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson26/1005.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Serious road collisions19/1001.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain11/100114 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Deliberate fires6/1002.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping5/1004.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Mid Suffolk council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour4/1004.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lowestoft | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Sudbury | 30 |
| 3 | Ipswich | 15 |
| 4 | Haverhill | 11 |
| 5 | Newmarket | 9 |
| 6 | Stowmarket | 7 |
| 7 | Felixstowe | 6 |
| 8 | Woodbridge | 4 |
| 9 | Bury St Edmunds | 3 |
| 10 | Kesgrave | 0 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Stowmarket by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 59.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 22% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 16 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 7.4 per 10,000 people, 2.2x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2024
What's left on the high street
- 11 pubs, 15 hairdressers, 8 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 2 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 19) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 2 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 9.3 per 100,000 people, 2.7x the typical town's 3.4
- 5 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 2.3 per 10,000 people, 44% higher than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 7.31pm last bus out on a Wednesday, and none on a Sunday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.3% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 40% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 21.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 38% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,710 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 12% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Mid Suffolk council
- £2,317 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £75 less than the English average
- 22% of Suffolk County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 38% higher than England's 16%
- 1 ombudsman complaint upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Stowmarket 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.