The Lemon Fool

I was under the (apparent) mis-apprehension that council tax rises were limited to 5% without the need for a local referendum.

I received my 2019/20 bill this morning and it quite clearly shows an increase of 6.5%.

This is broken down as:
West Sussex County Council 3%
Adult Social Care Precept 2%
Sussex PCC 14.5%
District Council 2.7%
Parish Council 28.7%
Overall 6.5%

More irksome is that in monetary terms I have to pay 27.5% more for policing when we never see a policeman out here rather than the District Council who actually do a good job all over the district but that's just my rant and is irrelevant to my question.

So, my question is: does the '5%' only apply at County Council level and are they allowed to fiddle the figures by loading it elsewhere or is it the total bill that counts?

My understanding of the rises allowed are:
Local Authority/Council = 2.99% max
Adult Social Care = 2.00% max

The other elements of your council tax bill e.g. County Council, Police, Fire & Rescue etc don't have the same limits......which drag up the overall increase.

So, for example in Pembrokeshire the overall increase is 9.92% and in Conwy it's 9.6%......makes your 6.5% or my 4.8% look quite attractive don't It ?