Monmouthpedia is set to go county-wide after Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) signed a unique agreement with the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco.

The agreement provides the council with a restricted right of access to the Wikipedia brand and logo.

Monmouth, as the world's first Wikipedia town, now boasts more than 1,000 QR codes, 250 online articles and is the subject of a WiFi project to give the town centre free internet access.

Last Wednesday (18th July), MCC's cabinet voted to increase the scale of the project and create 'Monmouthpediashire'.

Kellie Beirne, chief officer for regeneration and culture, told the meeting: "The successes of Monmouthpedia are just beginning, we've already seen locals, tourists and Wikipedians across the world working together and sharing their skills.

"It's a bit of a mouthful but Monmouthpediashire will see the project spread to our other towns."

Residents of Chepstow and Raglan, as well as Abergavenny and Rogiet, have already shown an interest in taking on the project.

"The beauty of it is that while we've provided a small amount of financial resource (along with our partners Wikimedia) to fund the role of a resident Wikipedian and specialist advisory support – the real resource has come from community members, groups, local businesses and the support of the global Wikipedia community," added Ms Beirne, who also praised Monmouth Chamber of Trade for its help.

"It is an example of working smarter and drawing on all those untapped resources and social capital that exists within our communities to create public value. We plan to make that value reach the whole of the county."

Cabinet approved a budget of £40,000 to consolidate development of the Monmouthpedia project county-wide.

This will see the six-month appointment of a resident Wikipedian to develop and co-ordinate the project and a small number of advisors to facilitate specific aspects of the project.

Councillor Phil Hobson, deputy leader of the council, said: "Chepstow is next, we are ahead of the game. People are already doing their research and getting pages ready."

Cllr Liz Hacket Pain said she hoped the project would continue to work closely with local businesses.

"It has been fantastic for the town [Monmouth] but we have God's own part of Monmouth just over the bridge – maybe we could have Wyeshampedia?" she added.

MCC's other deputy leader, Cllr Bob Greenland, said: "What a fantastic project.

"John Cummings came back to his home town with this idea and council officers immediately took it up and ran with it."

MCC chief executive Paul Matthews said Wikimania, the international Wikimedia conference, had voted monmouthpedia 'the world's coolest project'.

"This is innovation and creation right here. At the core of this project is local people writing stories about their town," he said.

"The challenge now is about scale and staying on the edge."