Crap Towns / Suffolk / Sudbury
Sudbury
30/100Crap Score
685th crappest of 984 towns, and 2nd 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
Silk for royalty, lorries for us
Sudbury weaves silk for royalty. It can't get a bypass for love nor money.
Sudbury is a nice old market town that still weaves silk for royalty, with water meadows down by the Stour. Every lorry in Suffolk goes straight through the middle, because the bypass has been coming for decades, and now you pay to park as well.
The town centre is charity shops and bookies, with the charity shops at more than three times the typical town's rate. Barclays, Halifax, HSBC and NatWest have each shut a branch. Four banks gone from a town that makes silk for the King. The river's clean, mind. That's something.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Sudbury's 94 for broadband means it's crapper than 94% of towns.
- Broadband94/10021.6% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 24.6% across the Babergh council area
- Serious road collisions70/1003.0 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson61/1007.9 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Deliberate fires56/1006.2 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution53/1007.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene53/1002.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 151 food businesses with a rating
- Anti-social behaviour22/1007.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Sewage spills17/10028.6 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Rain12/100114 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping9/1004.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Babergh council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
| 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.
Sudbury by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 72.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 76.2
- 27 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 11.3 per 10,000 people, 3.3x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2016
- Good Friars Meadow, River Stour's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 15 pubs, 24 hairdressers, 11 charity shops, 4 bookmakers, 1 vape shop, 5 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 5.6% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 18) Worse: 40% higher than the typical town's 4.0%
- 4 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 16.7 per 100,000 people, 4.9x the typical town's 3.4
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.3 per 10,000 people, 19% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 14% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.30pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.6% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 20% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 3.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 80% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,658 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Better: 8% higher than the typical town's 1,532
Babergh council
- £2,342 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £50 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
Sudbury 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.