Crap Towns / Greater Manchester / Whitefield
Whitefield
81/100Crap Score
192nd crappest of 984 towns, and 36th in Greater Manchester. 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
It's a motorway junction, mate
Most people only know Whitefield as a turn-off on the M60, and they're not missing much.
Whitefield's a motorway junction with a town hung off it. Bury New Road cuts the place in half, off-road bikes tear round the rec, and Bury gets the attention while Whitefield gets the traffic. There's a famous brass band down at Besses o' th' Barn. The library went.
The kitchens fail their hygiene inspections more than three times as often as the typical town's, so you'd not eat in some of them. There's rain on 162 days a year, the sun manages 1,364 hours, and there's one public toilet for the lot.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Whitefield's 91 for air pollution means it's crapper than 91% of towns.
- Air pollution91/10014.4 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.5 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Rain86/100162 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Food hygiene85/1007.6% rated 0 to 2, of the 66 food businesses with a rating
- Sewage spills78/100788 spill hours per 10,000 people a year, storm overflows within 1 km, 2023 to 2025
- Fly-tipping73/10015.8 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bury council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Deliberate fires69/1009.0 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Criminal damage and arson58/1007.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Anti-social behaviour45/10014.7 per 1,000 people a year, July 2023 to June 2026
- Serious road collisions44/1002.3 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Broadband12/1002.1% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 5.8% across the Bury council area
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 32 | Failsworth | 81 |
| 33 | Platt Bridge and Abram | 81 |
| 34 | Hindley | 81 |
| 35 | Radcliffe | 81 |
| 36 | Whitefield | 81 |
| 37 | Little Lever | 80 |
| 38 | Dukinfield | 79 |
| 39 | Prestwich | 79 |
| 40 | Wigan | 77 |
Whitefield by numbers
Thinking of moving here? Don't say we didn't warn you.
Crime, muck and dodgy water
- 87.7 crimes per 1,000 people a year (July 2023 to June 2026) Worse: 15% higher than the typical town's 76.2
- 16 reports of potholes and bad road surfaces on FixMyStreet, the most reported problem in the year to October 2026 Worse: 7.2 per 10,000 people, 2.1x the typical town's 3.4
What's left on the high street
- 7 pubs, 7 hairdressers, 1 bookmaker on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- 11.8% of takeaways rated 0 to 2 for hygiene (2 of 17) Worse: 3x the typical town's 4.0%
- 1 library shut for good since 2010: Whitefield Library & Adult Learning Centre (2017)
- 1 public toilet on the map (October 2026) Worse: 0.5 per 10,000 people, 69% lower than the typical town's 1.6
- 2 public swimming pools open Better: 0.9 per 10,000 people, 29% higher than the typical English town's 0.7
- 1 place on England's Heritage at Risk register
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 12.46am last bus out on a Wednesday Better: Later than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.2% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Better: 60% lower than the typical town's 0.5%
- 17.6% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Worse: 14% higher than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,364 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) Worse: 11% lower than the typical town's 1,532
Bury council
Have a crap-off
Whitefield 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.