Crap Towns / Lancashire / Thornton
Thornton
48/100Crap Score
509th crappest of 984 towns, and 30th in Lancashire. 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
A windmill and a lot of estates.
They keep building estates. Nobody's told the drains or the doctors.
Thornton has a proper windmill, a country park on the estuary at Stanah and a little theatre. What it mostly has now is new houses. They keep going up on the fields, Bourne Road is full of the extra traffic, people round Bourne Way worry the new estates will flood, and the trees come down to make room.
Nearly four in ten people live further than 400 metres from a park or play area, and nowhere public to swim. Nothing else is especially bad. It's just filling up.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Thornton's 74 for serious road collisions means it's crapper than 74% of towns.
- Serious road collisions74/1003.2 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Rain73/100148 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Anti-social behaviour66/10017.5 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Food hygiene63/1003.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 84 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills53/100309 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Criminal damage and arson35/1006.0 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping29/1007.4 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Wyre council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband26/1003.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 7.6% across the Wyre council area
- Air pollution18/1006.1 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Deliberate fires7/1002.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 26 | Heysham | 63 |
| 27 | Barnoldswick | 63 |
| 28 | Poulton-le-Fylde | 61 |
| 29 | Ormskirk | 51 |
| 30 | Thornton | 48 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.31 | Lytham St Anne's | 39 |
| 32 | Euxton | 35 |
| 33 | Penwortham | 34 |
| 34 | Longton | 25 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Thornton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 50.8 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 33% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 2 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 71% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 5 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2025
- Good Cleveleys's bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 6 pubs, 11 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 7.7% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (1 of 13) Worse: 1.9x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 public toilets on the map (October 2026) About the same: 1.6 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical town's 1.6
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.15am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.4% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 20% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 38.8% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 2.5x the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,548 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Wyre council
Have a crap-off
Thornton 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.