Well we ran the car again today (video to follow), there are various oil leaks which we are aware of so when we saw fluid on the floor we weren't too concerned but on closer inspection it wasn't yellow (new oil), it was blue (coolant), which is bad. We had already nipped up the fixings on the cover plate on the back of the water pump and there seemed to still be a leak so after we had finished the repeat noise test and driven the car forwards/backwards the car went straight back up on jacks and the water pump was definitely leaking. As we stood there watching it the leak developed into a stream and after running around like idiots with various sized buckets, the car decided it had had enough of the crappy old gasket and relieved itself of all its coolant.
A few minutes and bruised knuckles later and the offending gasket could be inspected:
The gasket didn't look particularly good in two positions, which when fitted at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions which have a slightly different, flattened edge because of the way the back of the water pump is machined. Not having a replacement and feeling a little under pressure to get the rest of the car fixed, we dug out some silicone gasket sealant which I used on our old Nissan Micra sump when I did the timing chain. A nice bead on both sides of the gasket and the pump cover went back on. A bit fiddly as the room behind the pump is quite limited but it all went back together in about half an hour.
This is the back of the water pump with the plate taken off:
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