CONNORS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT 27 special needs of gypsies who live a nomadic lifestyle and this, they emphasised, required flexibility in the management of local authority sites. They argued, secondly, that the power to evict summarily was a vital management tool in coping with anti-social behaviour as without speedily removing troublemakers the other gypsy families would tend to abandon the site rather than assisting the local authority by “informing” on others and giving evidence in formal court procedures. As a subsidiary argument, they submitted that the additional costs of court procedures could increase the fees applicable to gypsy sites and thus act to the overall detriment of the gypsy population as a whole. 88. As regards the nomadism argument, the Court notes that it no longer appears to be the case that local authority gypsy sites cater for a transient population. The October 2002 report (see paragraphs 55-63 above) indicates, as has been apparent from the series of cases brought to Strasbourg over the last two decades, that a substantial majority of gypsies no longer travel for any material period. Most local authority sites are residential in character. On 86% the residents have been in occupation for three years or more and there is a very low turnover of vacancies. Of an estimated 5,000 pitches, only 300 are allocated as transit pitches. It is not apparent that it can be realistically claimed that the majority of local authority sites have to provide, or aim to provide, a regular turnover of vacancies to accommodate gypsies who are travelling round or through the area. The Court is not persuaded therefore that the claimed flexibility is related in any substantial way to catering for an unspecified minority of gypsies who remain ‘nomadic’ and for whom a minimum of transit pitches have to be made available. It appears that there are in fact specific sites designated as “transit” sites and that these are distinguished from the vast majority of other local authority gypsy sites. The material before the Court certainly does not indicate that eviction by summary procedure is used as a means of maintaining a turnover of vacant pitches or of preventing families from becoming long-term occupants. 89. As regards the use of summary eviction as a tool in controlling antisocial behaviour, the Court would note that the 2003 report indicates that it is in fact only rarely used – on 5% of sites – and that some local authorities considered that the licence status of gypsies made them second-class citizens and would prefer to regularise their position to bring them into line with other forms of social housing (see paragraphs 64-66). The mere fact that anti-social behaviour occurs on local authority gypsy sites cannot, in itself, justify a summary power of eviction, since such problems also occur on local authority housing estates and other mobile home sites and in those cases the authorities make use of a different range of powers and may only proceed to evict subject to independent court review of the justification for the measure. Notwithstanding the assertion that gypsy attitudes to authority would make court proceedings impractical, it may be noted that security of