Council Tax Rises

[Maroochydore]

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?

[richlist]

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 ?