Crap Towns / Cheshire / Warrington
Warrington
40/100Crap Score
Scousers call them Woollybacks.
593rd crappest of 984 towns, and 7th in Cheshire. 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 Warrington? Write in.
agree it's crap have defended it
Which lane? Too late.
Halfway between Liverpool and Manchester, and sat in traffic in both directions.
Warrington sits between Liverpool and Manchester, so everyone drives through it and nobody stops. Rush hour is gridlock, the ship canal bridges are bottlenecks and Bridge Foot is a mess nobody understands.
The kitchens deserve a look. The hygiene inspectors hand out 0 to 2 more than twice as often as in the typical town, and one in seven takeaways gets one. Every year the Wire fans say it's their year. Every year St Helens has other ideas.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Warrington's 92 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 92% of towns.
- Food hygiene92/1005.5% rated 0 to 2, of the 849 food businesses with a rating
- Rain76/100152 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Air pollution64/10010.8 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 6.6 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Serious road collisions57/1002.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills46/100238 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Deliberate fires43/1005.6 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson26/1005.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Fly-tipping25/1007.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Warrington council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour18/1006.6 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Broadband16/1003.7% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 4.0% across the Warrington council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Widnes | 63 |
| 4 | Winsford | 52 |
| 5 | Chester | 49 |
| 6 | Ellesmere Port | 49 |
| 7 | Warrington | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.8 | Runcorn | 39 |
| 9 | Middlewich | 39 |
| 10 | Congleton | 33 |
| 11 | Sandbach | 31 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Warrington by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 73.4 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
- 6 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 0.3 per 10,000 people, 91% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 9 serious pollution incidents within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2023
What's left on the high street
- 75 pubs, 108 hairdressers, 25 charity shops, 16 bookmakers, 9 vape shops, 10 banks, 9 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 13.8% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (20 of 145) Worse: 3.5x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 bank branch closure announced since 2022 Better: 0.6 per 100,000 people, 82% lower than the typical town's 3.4
- 15 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 44% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 13 public swimming pools open; 7 closed for good since 2010 About the same: 0.7 per 10,000 people, about the same as the typical English town's 0.7
- 5 places on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.19am last bus out on a Wednesday About the same: About the same as 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%
- 13.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 15% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,453 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 5% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Warrington council
- £2,448 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £56 more than the English average
- 13% of Warrington council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Better: 19% lower than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
Warrington 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.