Crap Towns / North Yorkshire / Tadcaster
Tadcaster
40/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 40. 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
All these breweries and the pubs shut
The breweries tower over the town. The pubs are shutting anyway.
Tadcaster has breweries on the skyline and the smell of them in the air, and the pubs are still closing. The ones that are open have rules about phones and swearing. The town centre is full of empty buildings, the river took the bridge in a flood a few years back, and the sewage goes in the Wharfe.
There's still 11 pubs, mind, three and a half times the typical town's per head, so it's not desperate yet. The overflows nearby dump sewage for nearly six times the typical town's hours. Not one public park on the map, and Halifax has gone. Crime's well under the typical town's. Nobody's allowed to swear in the pub, so nobody does anything.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Tadcaster's 91 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Sewage spills91/1001,619 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband80/10012.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 17.4% across the North Yorkshire council area
- Deliberate fires53/1005.8 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions52/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour45/10014.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene39/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 14 food businesses with a rating
- Air pollution35/1007.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.2 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain28/100120 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson27/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping12/1005.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, North Yorkshire council area, 2023-24 to 2024-25
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Whitby | 64 |
| 10 | Northallerton | 56 |
| 11 | Selby | 51 |
| 12 | Huntington | 46 |
| – | Tadcaster | 40 |
| 13 | Haxby | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.14 | Catterick Garrison | 31 |
| 15 | Knaresborough | 25 |
| 16 | Harrogate | 16 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Tadcaster by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 43.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 43% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 2 reports of broken street lights on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 4.6x the typical town's 0.7
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2019
What's left on the high street
- 11 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 1 charity shop on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 15.8 per 100,000 people, 4.6x the typical town's 3.4
- 2 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 2x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 3.2 per 10,000 people, 4.6x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.58pm last bus out on a Wednesday 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%
- 41.3% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space, and OS maps no public park here Worse: 2.7x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,416 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 8% lower than the typical town's 1,532
North Yorkshire council
- £2,544 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £152 more than the English average
- 18% of North Yorkshire council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 13% higher than England's 16%
- 41 ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Tadcaster 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.