30 CONNORS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT practice. The authorities are being required to give special consideration to a sector of the population which is no longer easy to define in terms of the nomadism which is the raison d’être of that special treatment. 94. However, even allowing for the margin of appreciation which is to be afforded to the State in such circumstances, the Court is not persuaded that the necessity for a statutory scheme which permitted the summary eviction of the applicant and his family has been sufficiently demonstrated by the Government. The power to evict without the burden of giving reasons liable to be examined as to their merits by an independent tribunal has not been convincingly shown to respond to any specific goal or to provide any specific benefit to members of the gypsy community. The references to “flexibility” or “administrative burden” have not been supported by any concrete indications of the difficulties that the regime is thereby intended to avoid (see, mutatis mutandis, Larkos v. Cyprus, [GC], no. 29515/95, ECHR 1999-I, where in finding a violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 concerning the difference in security of tenure provisions applying between tenants of public and private housing, the Court did not find that the difference in treatment could be justified by the argument that giving the applicant the right to remain indefinitely in a Stateowned dwelling would fetter the authorities’ duty to administer State-owned property in accordance with constitutional and legal requirements). It would rather appear that the situation in England as it has developed, for which the authorities must take some responsibility, places considerable obstacles in the way of gypsies pursuing an actively nomadic lifestyle while at the same time excluding from procedural protection those who decide to take up a more settled lifestyle. 95. In conclusion, the Court finds that the eviction of the applicant and his family from the local authority site was not attended by the requisite procedural safeguards, namely the requirement to establish proper justification for the serious interference with his rights and consequently cannot be regarded as justified by a “pressing social need” or proportionate to the legitimate aim being pursued. There has, accordingly, been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention. II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 14 OF THE CONVENTION 96. Article 14 of the Convention provides: “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in [the] Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.”