VPN for internet but not for local network? (Raspberry Pi)

[tres]

Hi all

I started playing with a Raspberry Pi. What a great little machine.
I've set up a VPN so it does some downloading from the internet, which works great.
But now I can't SSH into it from a local laptop
I can still get in via cloud VNC

Can anyone point me in the right direction of how I can fix this? Routing local addresses? I've impressed myself by getting this far but I need help now!! Thanks

(Using Raspberry Pi OS, RPi connected to router via ethernet)

 

[tres]

Did you create the extensionless file 'ssh' in the root directory?

No although i enabled SSH, and could SSH into it when the VPN was inactive