Crap Towns / Devon / Tiverton
Tiverton
69/100Crap Score
305th crappest of 984 towns, and 4th in Devon. 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
Got something to say about Tiverton? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Tiverton. What's that smell?
Horse-drawn barges on the canal, empty shops in the town and a whiff nobody can explain.
Tiverton's got a canal with horse-drawn barges, a castle and a pannier market. That's the nice bit. Then there's the Tiverton whiff, a stink that drifts over Collipriest and Ashley. The town centre's empty shops and tired buildings, and there's sod all to do at night.
The water company lets sewage out for ten times as long as in the typical town, criminal damage is running at 1.7 times the typical town's rate, and the town centre's on the Heritage at Risk list as a conservation area. There's hardly a bus after 7pm, so there's no escaping the smell either. Lovely barges, though.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Tiverton's 97 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 97% of towns.
- Sewage spills97/1002,738 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Broadband92/10015.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 32.8% across the Mid Devon council area
- Criminal damage and arson92/10011.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Anti-social behaviour75/10019.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain72/100147 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene69/1004.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 100 food businesses with a rating
- Deliberate fires39/1005.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Serious road collisions29/1001.8 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Fly-tipping19/1006.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Mid Devon council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Air pollution15/1005.6 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plymouth | 86 |
| 2 | Torquay | 84 |
| 3 | Barnstaple | 69 |
| 4 | Tiverton | 69 |
| 5 | Paignton | 53 |
| 6 | Exeter | 45 |
| 7 | Bideford | 42 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Newton Abbot | 39 |
| 9 | Honiton | 37 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Tiverton by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 83.3 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Worse: 9% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 5 reports of abandoned vehicles on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 2.5 per 10,000 people, 2.8x the typical town's 0.9
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2016
What's left on the high street
- 8 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 2 charity shops, 1 vape shop, 3 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 13.3% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 15) Worse: 3.3x the typical town's 4.0%
- 3 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 15.2 per 100,000 people, 4.5x the typical town's 3.4
- 7 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Better: 3.6 per 10,000 people, 2.3x the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 1.0 per 10,000 people, 43% 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
- 11.38pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 1.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 2.2x the typical town's 0.5%
- 5.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 65% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,539 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Mid Devon council
Have a crap-off
Tiverton 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.