Crap Towns / East Lothian / Tranent
Tranent
20/100Crap Score
Locals are Belters.
788th crappest of 984 towns, and 3rd in East Lothian. 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
Tranent. Belters by name.
Old pit town on the hill above the Forth that had Scotland's first railway, and now has a High Street of takeaways.
Tranent had pits and the first railway in Scotland, a wagonway that took the coal down to Cockenzie in 1722. Now it's a commuter town with a High Street of takeaways and bookies, and it's not somewhere you'd linger after dark. The locals are Belters. Some say it's from making leather belts, and some say it's because they fancied a scrap with the next village. Nobody in Prestonpans believes the first one.
Burglary runs at 3.1 per 1,000 people a year, against 1.8 in the typical Scottish town, and there are 2 bookmakers, more than twice the typical town's per head. Not a drop of sewage has spilled within a kilometre of the place in three years, mind. It's the only clean thing about the High Street.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Tranent's 69 for criminal damage and arson means it's crapper than 69% of towns.
- Criminal damage and arson69/1008.4 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Rain45/100125 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene40/1003.9% told to improve, of the 51 food businesses inspected
- Anti-social behaviour39/1007.0 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Broadband36/1003.5% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 12.2% across the East Lothian council area
- Serious road collisions36/1001.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires29/10011.7 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution8/1005.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.7 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Sewage spills2/1000.0 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Musselburgh | 74 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.2 | Haddington | 27 |
| 3 | Tranent | 20 |
| 4 | Prestonpans | 18 |
| 5 | Dunbar | 13 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Tranent by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 55.5 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) About the same: About the same as the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 3 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 2.5 per 10,000 people, 55% lower than the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
- 5 pubs, 5 hairdressers, 2 bookmakers, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 10.0% of takeaways inspected told to improve (1 of 10) Worse: 10% higher than the typical Scottish town's 9.1%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Worse: 8.2 per 100,000 people, 2.4x the typical town's 3.4
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.8 per 10,000 people, 50% lower than the typical town's 1.6
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.08am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.0% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Against the typical town's 0.5%
- 8.2% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 47% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,441 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 6% lower than the typical town's 1,532
East Lothian council
- £1,698 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £45 more than the Scottish average
- 34% of East Lothian council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 6% lower than Scotland's 36%
- 38 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, 1 upheld About the same: 33.8 per 100,000 residents, about the same as Scotland's 34.7
- 91.0% of the streets checked passed as clean (2025-26) About the same: About the same as Scotland's 92.2%
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Tranent 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.