AN estate agent with 19 years' experience said the proposed marina development would help keep house prices in Upton buoyant.

Liz Rickard, of John Goodwin, said media coverage of flooding had made it "more of an issue" to sell houses in the town.

Speaking after the tourism and trade association meeting on Monday, she said: "I think the marina will help overcome that."

Ms Rickard compared the marina development to a prestigious golf course, in that people would see the town as "moneyed" and as an attractive place in which to live.