Thanks a lot. I can't really get a grasp of how many this is a problem for. I owned an 'original' new MINI, and the gearboxes in those were like cheese. Mine inevitably died as did most of them. This doesn't seem as wide spread as that, and given the thread on here is a few years old and only 4 pages long with no new posts since 2014 I'm hoping it's something that would have happened by now. Time will tell, and needless to say if I notice anything within my 6 months warranty I'll get onto it.
Must admit, this has tarnished the purchase a little so far. I'm sure once I get the car and everything is fine I'll feel a bit more positive about it.