The Department of Territory has resolved to grant 6 million euros in subsidies to the county councils of the areas considered to be mountainous and to the Conselh Generau d’Aran for actions to improve and maintain municipal roads in the neighborhood and rural network. This is the early call for 2023, which will finance actions carried out between January 1 and October 31 of this year.
The aid is part of the Government’s mountain policies to guarantee the good condition of the access network to the nuclei of the nine mountain regions and the Aran. In 2022, these went from being endowed with 2.5 million to 6 million euros and, this 2023, the Department of Territory has maintained the budgetary effort.
The road improvement and maintenance line of the neighborhood and rural network is one more tool to guarantee territorial equity and the improvement of the living conditions of the residents of these regions, helping to fix the population and avoiding depopulation. Mountain policies include various lines of subsidies aimed at improving mobility, and last year they totaled close to 9 million euros.
The mountain regions are characterized by having kilometers of municipal roads, with high maintenance costs for orographic and climatic reasons and insufficient municipal budgets due to the low volume of population. In this context, for years the county councils and town halls have cooperated in the management of the municipal road network and, often, the latter delegate part of the tasks to be carried out to the councils, which have more technical and material resources.
For these reasons, under the protection of the High Mountain Law, the Generalitat has always maintained a policy of support for local entities in their work to adapt the road network and has strengthened the role of regional councils as a technical association of services. and cooperative entities.
In the case of subsidies for the improvement and maintenance of roads in the municipally owned neighborhood and rural network, it has been resolved to grant the maximum possible tax in each county council, which is determined based on the length of its structural network.
In this way, 399,840 euros have been granted for Alta Ribagorça, 866,400 for Alt Urgell, 383,280 euros for Aran, 616,200 euros for Berguedà , 489,120 for Cerdanya, 544,920 for Garrotxa, 759,480 for Pallars Jussà , 648,600 for Pallars Sovereign, 526.1.
