Crap Towns / Bedfordshire / Wootton
Wootton
8/100Crap Score
Too small for the table, which starts at 10,000 people, but it still scores 8. 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
Getting bigger. Doctor's full.
Nice commuter village that used to make bricks. Now it gets houses built on it.
Wootton is a quiet commuter village outside Bedford that used to make bricks and bells. It has hardly any crime or vandals, and the only moans are the new estates going up past the village edge and not being able to get a doctor's appointment. We looked hard and found one more thing. Some knobhead's started lighting fires: deliberate fires run a third above the typical town's rate, and they shot up last year.
What the score is made of
Ten ingredients, each marked out of 100. Higher is crapper.
Wootton's 62 for deliberate fires means it's crapper than 62% of towns.
- Deliberate fires62/1007.5 per 10,000 people a year, April 2023 to March 2026
- Air pollution50/1007.3 µg/m³ of nitrogen dioxide and 7.0 of fine particles, 2024 average
- Fly-tipping44/10010.2 incidents per 1,000 people a year, Bedford council area, 2022-23 to 2024-25
- Broadband44/1003.9% of premises can't get gigabit, January 2026, and 14.6% across the Bedford council area
- Food hygiene42/100
- Serious road collisions24/1001.6 per 10,000 people a year, fatal and serious, 2021 to 2025
- Sewage spills20/100
- Anti-social behaviour8/1007.8 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
- Rain8/100112 days of rain a year, at least 1 mm, 1991 to 2020 average
- Criminal damage and arson3/1003.1 per 1,000 people a year, September 2023 to August 2026
| Pos | Town | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Houghton Regis | 60 |
| 4 | Dunstable | 40 |
| In danger of becoming nice from here down.5 | Kempston | 27 |
| 6 | Sandy | 17 |
| 7 | Leighton Buzzard | 13 |
| 8 | Stotfold | 10 |
| – | Wootton | 8 |
| 9 | Flitwick | 4 |
| 10 | Biggleswade | 2 |
Below the dashed line: in danger of becoming nice.
Wootton 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
- 3 pubs, 1 hairdresser on the map here as of 1 October 2026
- None public swimming pools open Worse: Against the typical English town's 0.7 per 10,000 people
Getting about, getting online, getting rained on
- 11.47pm last bus out on a Wednesday Worse: Earlier than the typical town's 12.14am
- 0.7% of premises can't get superfast broadband (January 2026) Worse: 40% higher than the typical town's 0.5%
- 4.1% live more than 400 metres from a park or play space Better: 74% lower than the typical town's 15.5%
- 1,566 hours of sunshine a year (1991 to 2020 average) About the same: About the same as the typical town's 1,532
Bedford council
Have a crap-off
Wootton 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.