Wem

Sweet peas. Level crossing. That's Wem.

Twinned with a sweet pea at a level crossing

7/100Crap Score

Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 7. Higher scores are crapper.

How the score works

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Crap Town of the Year 2026/27

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Sweet peas and a ghost girl

Wem grows sweet peas and waits at the level crossing. The river's less sweet.

Wem breeds sweet peas and puts on a show for them, which tells you the pace of the place. Its big moment was a photo of a ghost girl in the town hall fire, who turned out to look an awful lot like a girl off an old postcard. That's the excitement. The rest of the time it's sat at the level crossing waiting for the barriers.

Per head there are over three times the typical town's hairdressers, so at least everyone's waiting with a fresh trim. The last bus out on a Wednesday goes at 7.44pm, and on a Sunday there isn't one. The storm overflows go off for over six times the typical town's hours, into the one bit of Wem that was meant to be pretty.

The editor, stuck at the level crossing

What the score is made of

Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.

Wem's 92 for sewage spills means it's crapper than 92% of towns.

Sewage spills92/1001,739 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
Rain61/100134 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
Broadband61/1001.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 25.4% across the Shropshire council area
Food hygiene27/1000.0% rated 0 to 2, of the 35 food businesses with a rating
Criminal damage and arson26/1005.4 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Anti-social behaviour20/10010.2 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
Deliberate fires13/1002.1 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
Fly-tipping9/1004.3 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Shropshire council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
Air pollution8/1003.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 5.4 of fine particles, 2024 average
Serious road collisions2/1000.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025

**Your patch: Shropshire**Towns in the same county. Top of the table is crappest.
Pos	Town	National	Score
1	Telford	408th	59
In danger of becoming nice from here down.2	Shrewsbury	604th	39
3	Newport	703rd	29
4	Oswestry	705th	28
5	Bridgnorth	758th	23
6	Ludlow	798th	19
7	Market Drayton	908th	8
–	Wem	–	7

Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.

Wem by numbers

Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.

Crime, muck and dodgy water

What's left on the high street

Getting about, getting online, getting rained on

Shropshire council

Have a crap-off

Wem against your mate's town, and a match ticket to rub it in.

Against

WemCrap Score 7

WhitchurchCrap Score 11

Ten ingredients. One verdict. Who's crapper? The higher Crap Score takes it.