Crap TownsBritain's towns, rated by the people stuck in them

Crap Towns / North Yorkshire / Strensall

Welcome to

Strensall

Rifles on the common. Very little else happens.
Twinned with a barracks with a Tesco

14/100Crap Score

Known as Strenny.

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 14. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

Have your say

Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

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

Letters from the locals

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Guns on the common. Chaos at Tesco.

Army ranges on the common, new houses going up, and a village very sure it's lovely.

Strensall has a big heath on its doorstep with the army firing rifles on it, and still the biggest drama is outside Tesco. The road through the village jams there, parked cars block the buses and the school run makes it worse. New houses keep going up with nothing to go with them.

Crime's under a third of the typical town's. The army's next door, so nobody fancies it. The kitchens are another matter: 8.3% of the food places score 0 to 2, three and a half times the typical town's share. The overflows run for over three times as long as the typical town's, and in 2025 crude sewage went in the water.

The editor, who calls it Strenny

What the score is made of

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

Strensall's 80 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 80% of towns.

  • Sewage spills80/100868 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
  • Food hygiene74/1008.3% rated 0 to 2, of the 24 food businesses with a rating
  • Broadband65/10010.8% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 9.7% across the York council area
  • Fly-tipping43/10010.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, York council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
  • Deliberate fires34/1004.4 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
  • Rain25/100119 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
  • Air pollution12/1004.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
  • Anti-social behaviour2/1006.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
  • Serious road collisions2/1000.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
  • Criminal damage and arson0/1002.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Your patch: North YorkshireTowns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
PosTownNationalScore
11Selby481st51
12Huntington533rd46
13Haxby589th40
14Catterick Garrison681st31
15Knaresborough743rd25
16Harrogate826th16
17Ripon838th15
–Strensall–14
18Ingleby Barwick910th8

Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.

Strensall 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

York council

Have a crap-off

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

StrensallCrap Score 14
v
HaxbyCrap Score 40

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