Green Party county councillors are calling for an urgent investigation into the payment of funds by Reform councillor Janet Bainbridge to a trauma support group run by her husband.

Every year, county councillors are allocated a sum through the members' locality budget, which was £5,000 in 2025/26, to support community projects.

Earlier this year (2025/26), Cllr Janet Bainbridge made a donation of £500 to Pathfinders Chapter.

Pathfinders Chapter is described as a mental health trauma community group that was initially set up for military veterans but is open to others.

But as a community interest company (CIC), director Doug Bainbridge, also a county councillor, could legitimately be awarded payments by the organisation.

That prompted Green Party county councillors to raise concerns about the payment and to ask for an urgent investigation.

"Is this evidence of a Reform councillor paying her husband and fellow councillor at the taxpayer's expense?" said leader of Herts County Council's Green group, Cllr Kirsty Taylor-Moran.

"We don't know, but the Green group has requested that the Herts County Council standards committee investigates this question as a matter of urgency."

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In response to the calls, military veteran Cllr Doug Bainbridge, who has also served as a police officer and as a fire service volunteer, stresses that he has not received a penny from Pathfinders Chapter.

He says he and his wife, Janet, had even asked for advice from county council officials before the payment from the member's locality budget was made. And they were, he says, assured it was acceptable.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he set up the Pathfinders Chapter support group, which was registered as a CIC in 2025, around three years ago, in response to requests for support from fellow veterans.

Having benefited from treatment for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) at a military hospital in the early 1990s, he says he had learned how to support others – and felt "driven" to help.

But he stresses that he does not benefit financially. And he says it would be wrong to take anything financially, because "it would be making money out of people's misery".

"I struggled with PTSD, and I was very fortunate in being taken to a military hospital in the early 1990s, and I was treated very well," he said.

"I was on a course with about six of us altogether, where we learned not only how to become well again, but also about recognising it in other people – and being able to help them.

"I set up the group to allow people to talk on a peer-to-peer basis – to help them to deal with the trauma in their lives.

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"They can't get help from the NHS, because the NHS are overwhelmed. They do wonderful work, but they don't have the capacity there.

"I don't take anything financially – that's not my driver.

"I set it up to help people. I didn't set it up to make money. It would be making money out of people's misery, and that's wrong."

The group, which has grown to include those who have suffered trauma in the military, the blue light services and elsewhere, now meets at a county council facility once a week.

Cllr Bainbridge says the £500, which he says is still "in the bank", will be used to supply essentials such as tea, coffee, milk and tissues for the next two years.

Meanwhile, Cllr Janet Bainbridge says that all locality budget payments are overseen by the county council.

She says advice was sought from senior council officers in advance of the payment to the Pathfinders Chapter.

And she says that, should there be an investigation by the county council, she was confident that it would be found to be above board.

Commenting on the concerns raised about the payment, a spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said: "Council officers are currently reviewing information with a view to assessing whether an investigation should be launched."