The terra firma Consultancy Ltd

terra firma are chartered landscape architects with a reputation for high standards of work across the spectrum of landscape design consultancy. Areas of expertise include master planning and environmental impact assessment, urban landscape design, rural planning and design as well as expert witness and giving evidence at public inquiry. Landscape Institute registered practice. Quality assured to ISO 9001 (2015) Environmental Management Systems ISO 14001 (2015).

Robyn Butcher joined terra firma as a graduate straight from university in 1995, becoming Associate 2007, Associate Director 2015 and Director 2020. Robyn currently sits on the Landscape Institute’s Environmental Standards Working Group and has been involved as an author on the recent Competency Framework Review. She sits on the South Downs National Park Authority’s Design Panel, the Test Valley Borough Council Design Panel and is a member of the Hampshire Gardens Trust Conservation and Development Committee. She is an external examiner for Leeds Beckett University.

Robyn regularly appears as an expert witness at planning appeals, including Cornwall’s largest ever Planning Inquiry, representing the Council against the development of a huge ‘Energy from Waste’ facility. She has written design guidelines for new dwellings in the Chichester Harbour AONB, now adopted as Supplementary Design Guidance by the Local Authorities, and has produced EIAs for various controversial exploratory minerals schemes.

Membership and qualifications
Elected Fellow of the Landscape Institute (2022), BA (Hons) Degree (1993) and Graduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture (1995) both at Leeds Metropolitan University.

Alison Galbraith joined terra firma in 2002, becoming Associate Director in 2015 and Director in 2020.  Alison currently chairs the Landscape Institute’s Professional Review Group at the University of Gloucestershire and until recently, sat on the Design Panel for the South Downs National Park. Alison occasionally lectures and regularly writes on landscape issues and mentors candidates on the Landscape Institute’s Pathway to Chartership scheme.

Alison’s design experience includes specialised settings such as mental health hospitals, secure children’s homes and schools, as well as residential, public realm and public parks. Alison has developed the practice’s expertise in large landscape planning studies such as landscape capacity and sensitivity studies and landscape character assessments and has acted as expert witness on behalf of local authorities in local plan examinations in public and appeals for public and private sector clients.

Membership and qualifications
First Class Honours BA and MA Degree in Landscape Architecture at the University of Gloucestershire.  Elected Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute (2005).