Crap Towns / Highland / Westhill
Westhill
17/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 17. 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
Westhill. It's houses.
New houses on the edge of Inverness, and a long wait for a shop, a hall or anything else.
Westhill is the bit on the edge of Inverness where they kept building houses and forgot the rest. Anything beyond a haircut means a drive into Inverness. Crime's about half the typical Scottish town's and there are parks everywhere. 4 of the 14 places serving food were told to improve, which makes the kitchens in Inverness look good. Nice and quiet. Too quiet, if you're fifteen.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Westhill's 86 for food hygiene means it's crapper than 86% of towns.
- Food hygiene86/10028.6% told to improve, of the 14 food businesses inspected
- Broadband82/1004.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 36.7% across the Highland council area
- Rain74/100150 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Fly-tipping50/100
- Serious road collisions35/1001.4 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Deliberate fires9/1005.3 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Sewage spills8/1004.1 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Anti-social behaviour6/1003.0 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Criminal damage and arson1/1002.5 per 1,000 people a year, January 2023 to December 2025
- Air pollution0/1002.5 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 4.1 of fine particles, 2024 average
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inverness | 66 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.– | Westhill | 17 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Westhill by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 28.6 crimes per 1,000 people a year (January 2023 to December 2025) Better: 47% lower than the typical Scottish town's 54.4
- 1 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Better: 1.8 per 10,000 people, 68% lower than the typical Scottish town's 5.6
What's left on the high street
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.10pm 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%
- 13.4% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 14% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,216 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 21% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Highland council
- £1,634 Band D council tax (2026-27) About the same: £19 less than the Scottish average
- 43% of Highland council's unclassified roads should have been considered for maintenance (2025-26) Worse: 19% higher than Scotland's 36%
- 99 ombudsman complaints decided in 2025-26, none upheld Worse: 42.1 per 100,000 residents, 21% higher than Scotland's 34.7
- 95.3% 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
Westhill 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.