14 CONNORS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT buildings. In this changed situation there seems no reason why residents should not have the same right as the tenants of council housing or non-Gypsy mobile home sites.’ ” 52. The judge summarised the statements of both Mr Gahagan and Dr Kenrick concerning the differing patterns of life chosen by gypsies: Mr Gahagan emphasised the flexibility necessary to cope with those who move on a regular basis or were permanently based on one site but possibly travelling several months a year while Dr Kenrick stated that position had substantially moved on from the time of the 1968 Act when it was anticipated that 20% of families travelled, that local authorities even encouraged families to become permanent residents by allowing them to leave for periods and pay half rent and that for the small minority that travelled all year round there were the existing small number of transit sites. The judge then summarised the conclusions of the October 2002 report (see below) which was found to be the most significant feature in the evidence before him. 53. The judge concluded: “32. It is plain from the passages of the October 2002 Report that I have cited that it is now accepted that there is a substantial majority that no longer travels for any material period, albeit that there is a substantial minority that does travel. No figures have been produced, and, as Dr Kenrick himself has pointed out, no statistics as to turnover yet exist, but the varied passages from the Report which I have cited in paragraph 30(vi) show that it is accepted that some thinking must now be done. Nevertheless when asked by me whether the Secretary of State wanted an adjournment to consider the position further, Mr Mould clearly stated that no such adjournment was sought, and that his case remains that, rethink though there plainly is going to be, the Secretary of State still accepts the onus of showing that the present legislation can still be justified. This is not a case, as adumbrated in Seymour-Smith and Hooper, where the Government now accepts that the position can no longer be justified but asserts an entitlement to a period to correct discriminatory effects before a declaration is made... but rather a situation where the Government is still in the process of monitoring the position and, until it reaches a conclusion, asserts that the present position can be justified. 33. If this were simply a matter of concluding that there is now a substantial majority of gypsies who are no longer nomadic, whose position can be immediately safeguarded by some new legislation of the kind discussed in general terms in paragraph 31 above, I would not feel inhibited either by the well-established principles of allowing deference and/or a margin of appreciation to Government or Parliament... nor in particular by the principle enunciated by the Court in Mellacher ... whereby the ‘possible existence of alternative solutions does not in itself render the contested legislation unjustified’. However I am satisfied that the position is not so straightforward. There is, in my judgment, quite apart from any simple question of giving security of tenure to those in council caravan sites, a necessary, indeed, crucial, concomitant question to be considered and resolved, before it can be concluded that the present position is unjustified. I conclude that there is a very difficult question of how to define gypsies, to whom security of tenure in such sites is to be given (if it is). If security of tenure is to be given to all long-term caravan occupiers on council sites, as they are on private sites, then how, if at all, is there to be any differentiation