Sejong City plans to appeal to the Supreme Court against the appeals court's decision to cancel the location of the household waste incinerator.

(Sejong = Yonhap News) Reporter Yang Young-seok = Sejong City, which received a ruling from the appeals court to cancel the decision to select a location for a household waste incineration facility (eco-friendly comprehensive town), announced its intention to appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to Sejong City on the 15th, the 'Incinerator Opposition Committee', composed of residents, has decided on an internal policy to appeal against the appellate court's ruling on 'cancellation of notice of location and decision for waste treatment facility' filed against Sejong City.

Previously, the Daejeon High Court accepted residents' claims and ruled that the location of the incinerator decided by Sejong City should be canceled.

The court accepted the countermeasures committee's argument that among the resident representatives who served as members of the incinerator site selection committee, there were people who did not fall under the category of 'representatives of residents residing around waste disposal facilities' as defined by law.

For this reason, the location selection decision made by the illegally constituted location selection committee was also judged to be illegal.

After the appeals court ruling, there was an interpretation that the project could be reexamined from the beginning, but Sejong City stated that it could not stop the new incinerator construction project.

Sejong City's argument is that since the appellate court also ruled that there was no need to invalidate the entire project, only the related controversy needs to be resolved.

A high-ranking city official told Yonhap News, “The appellate court found that the composition of the location selection committee itself was wrong, so then we can resolve the problem by re-organizing the committee.”

At the same time, he said, "It is a necessary project that we have already purchased the land for and have a firm intention to pursue in the future." He added, "The court's judgment that the composition of the site selection committee was wrong has some differences with the central government's opinion. Even if we lose the appeal, it will not affect the progress of the project, and we believe that it is a matter of correcting the wrong parts."

Sejong City, where household waste has rapidly increased, decided to build an eco-friendly comprehensive town and confirmed and announced the location in July 2023.

At the time, the city announced that it would spend 360 billion won to build an eco-friendly comprehensive town capable of processing 480 tons of waste per day on a 65,123㎡ site in Songseong-ri, Jeondong-myeon.

Nearby residents who opposed this filed an administrative lawsuit to cancel Sejong City's decision to select the incinerator location, arguing that the composition of the resident representatives was incorrect and that the validity of the business consent received from nursing home residents could not be recognized.

The first trial court dismissed the plaintiff's claim in November of last year, but the legal battle continues as residents filed an appeal.