Eight West Oxfordshire communities and Blenheim Palace have agreed to collaborate and establish a Village Travel Network (VTN). The VTN initiative aims to create a network of safer walking, cycling and riding networks that link villages together. Routes in the network will provide safer and more sustainable options for local communities that avoid busy roads, traffic pollution and will enable recreational and well-being benefits. The villages are Bladon, Combe, Glympton, Fawler, Hanborough, Stonesfield, Wootton and Woodstock Town.

VTN communities and Blenheim Palace share an inspirational vision that brings villages together to enable sustainable travel, connectivity and networking that enhances safety, wellbeing and long term social and environmental eco-friendly benefits.

Central to the success of the VTN will be to work alongside key stakeholders such as Blenheim Palace with the aim of exploring and eventually opening up new routes as an integral part of linking villages. 

One of the catalysts for this networking vision was the agreement for school children from the villages of Stonesfield and Combe to cycle through Blenheim Park to the Marlborough school at Woodstock. Hailed as a great success it has led community leaders to look at other ways in which cycling and walking can easily be incorporated into everyday life.

The VTN team and Blenheim see the project as a template for other villages to follow. The widespread benefits of reducing local car journeys, whilst improving well-being through walking and cycling, will contribute to reducing carbon emissions and create safer local travel routes.

Outline objectives for implementing the VTN include the following

• Engage communities, key stakeholders and create partnerships to identify funding sources.
• Deliver environmental, low carbon, safety, health and social benefits that demonstrate best practice across the village networks protecting nature and habitats.
• Implement 20 mph speed limits in participating villages. 
• Prioritise cycling and walking routes to Hanborough Station.
• Declare key inter-village routes with priority given to pedestrians and cyclists.
• Facilitate key east-west connections with new restricted and conditional routes to be identified.

This page is a place to keep abreast of all things VTN and to provide a link to the main VTN site which is here

www.vtn.org.uk