Crap Towns / Nottinghamshire / West Bridgford
West Bridgford
33/100Crap Score
658th crappest of 984 towns, and 17th in Nottinghamshire. 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
Posh side of the river.
Big houses, posh cafés, and the old joke that they eat bread and lard to pay for them.
West Bridgford is Nottingham's posh side of the river, and the rest of Nottingham calls it Bread and Lard Island. The old joke is they spent the lot on the house and ate bread and lard for tea, and fetched the fish and chips home in violin cases so the neighbours wouldn't see. Central Avenue is all brunch and bars, Trent Bridge does the cricket, and Forest play at the City Ground, which is in Bridgford whatever anyone in Nottingham tells you.
Band D council tax is £2,643, so the lard's still on the menu. Violence barely registers. The most common crime is shoplifting, so they're not fighting, they're nicking the posh cheese. Barclays, Halifax, HSBC and NatWest have all announced they're off, which leaves fewer places to keep the money they haven't got.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
West Bridgford's 80 for air pollution means it's crapper than 80% of towns.
- Air pollution80/10011.2 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.3 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Food hygiene70/1003.7% rated 0 to 2, of the 192 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills58/100383 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Serious road collisions55/1002.5 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband47/1002.3% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 19.1% across the Rushcliffe council area
- Deliberate fires36/1004.9 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Fly-tipping32/1008.0 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Rushcliffe council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Anti-social behaviour19/10010.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain18/100117 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson12/1004.3 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Forest Town | 55 |
| 13 | Mansfield Woodhouse | 55 |
| 14 | Balderton | 54 |
| 15 | New Ollerton and Ollerton | 54 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.16 | Beeston | 35 |
| 17 | West Bridgford | 33 |
| 18 | Arnold | 25 |
| 19 | Carlton | 25 |
| 20 | Bingham | 16 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
West Bridgford by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 57.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (September 2023 to August 2026) Better: 24% lower than the typical town's 76.2
- 18 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 4.9 per 10,000 people, 44% higher than the typical town's 3.4
- 1 serious pollution incident within 1 km since 2016, the latest in 2020
- Excellent Colwick Country Park (West Lake)'s bathing water rating, 2025
What's left on the high street
- 13 pubs, 36 hairdressers, 7 charity shops, 2 bookmakers, 2 vape shops, 4 banks, 1 Greggs on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 0.0% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (0 of 25) Better: Against the typical town's 4.0%
- 4 bank branch closures announced since 2022 Worse: 11.0 per 100,000 people, 3.2x the typical town's 3.4
- 4 public toilets on the map (October 2026) Worse: 1.1 per 10,000 people, 31% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 9 public swimming pools open; 1 closed for good since 2010 Better: 2.5 per 10,000 people, 3.6x the typical English town's 0.7
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.32am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- Under 0.1% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: Far lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 20.9% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 35% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,494 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Rushcliffe council
- £2,643 Band D council tax (2026-27) Worse: £251 more than the English average
- 19% of Nottinghamshire County Council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 19% higher than England's 16%
- None ombudsman complaints upheld against the council in 2025-26
- More on the council
Have a crap-off
West Bridgford 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.