The collective Berango Defensa de la Tierra has recalled that on 27 March more than 200 people mobilized in Berango to protest the urban project of the City Hall. As he stressed, the construction of 2,326 dwellings is planned in the municipality, almost doubling the number of existing dwellings today. According to the environmental group, this figure is "a disaster." He also stressed that, in his view, the demand for protective housing needed by Berango ' s neighbours is guaranteed. They also regretted that people in situations of vulnerability or purchasing power do not have access to the planned housing, as the Official Protection Homes have been sold at the most expensive price of the authorized ones, around € 200,000.

As for the construction of social housing for rent, the environmental group has put on the table that the reparcellations of Etxebarri and Otxabene have led the City Hall to collect three plots in which the municipality has been urged to develop such projects. In this regard, the group regretted that the municipal authorities had sold two plots and exchanged a third for the Icaza palace in the park of Moreaga. In the case of the latter operation, the group denounces that the exchange was carried out "in exchange for a price fixed by the company": "No appraiser entered the building to check his condition." Moreover, despite the fact that in its day the City Hall indicated that cultural equipment could be made in the area, the ecologists have questioned the very project of this infrastructure: "Coincidentally, an exchange was made when it was good for the constructor to have more ground to build in Otxaben. During the 40 years in which the palace has been closed and nothing has been used, the City Hall has not made any proposal for the use of the building. Nor is there a clear plan to define the use to be given. This creates a real suspicion of motivation for the exchange."

As for the plot reserved by the City Hall, the members of the Land Defense Group of Berango have stressed that the municipal authorities tried to sell "illegally" which, thanks to allegations presented to this sale, canceled the operation. It has therefore been questioned whether two other plots have previously been sold and exchanged.

With regard to rural areas, Mayor Anabel Landa stressed in March that in areas where new housing is being built the land has always been private property and that there has never been any agricultural exploitation. However, the Beran Land Defense group has stated that "historically", in Otxabene there has been livestock and vegetable gardens, "and today trees can be identified that in their day there was fruit exploitation". And not only that, until last year, grass weed was being cut off to feed cattle. In Etxebarri there were also vegetable gardens and fruit trees."

Expired PGOU

As for the law, the Berango Land Defense Group has once again denounced that the Guidelines for Spatial Planning approved by the Basque Government in 2019 do not permit the construction of so many homes in Berango. In addition, ecologists say in their reports that the technical writers of the new Partial Territorial Plan (PTP) of Bilbao Metropolitano say that it cannot be built in Otxaben or Otxandategi, because "it is far from the city center". For his part, in March, the mayor defended that all the current regulations are guaranteed for the realization of these buildings, and recalled that the dwellings have been foreseen in the 2011 PGOU and that since then it was known where and how they would be built.

In view of this, the Berangoztarra collective has recalled that the PGOU has been expired for two years and has asked why a moratorium on the PGOU cannot be made and wait for the publication of the PTP: "Does it really make sense to continue to listen to what is contained in an expired document signed ten years ago? ".

Finally, in an open letter, the group has emphasized that the limits of development in the municipality have been exceeded, "it is time to stop filling our natural and peasant environment with cement. As for the urban growth of Berango, this limit has already been exceeded".