The local framework and the provision of municipal services in the MAB-6 ALT PIRINEU area

Abstract

A detailed analysis of municipal infrastructures and services in the municipalities in the HIGH PYRENEES MAB-6 area, together with relevant local government legislation, constitutes the empirical basis or point of reference for these reflections on the viability and future perspectives of small mountain settlements. It is important to emphasise the pre-eminence of the municipality in mountain areas. Nevertheless, small mountain municipalities ca11 not be a caricatured and rachitic reproduction of larger ones. It must be understood that in most cases small municipalities are, for various reasons, incapable of carrying out all the functions adjudicated to them under government legislation. Such reasons include: unbalanced population structure, deficiencies in infrastructures accumulated over time, severe population loss, and so on. Although Catalan local government legislation contemplates special cases and a certain degree of understanding of the case of small municipalities, it is a juridical regime designed to be implemented at an excessively general level.