Interesting how many people on Goodreads seem to find none or very few of the characters in The Casual Vacancy likeable. Only two characters struck me as totally unsympathetic: (view spoiler)[Simon Price; and Obbo, the drug-dealing rapist. (hide spoiler)] 
 Rowling allows the reader some time inside the head of nearly everyone in Pagford, giving us the opportunity to become fond of all of them. The trouble is that they're not, for the most part, that fond of each other (presumably because they're all stuck in their own heads all of the time). But one is still allowed hope that one day understanding could lead us all to a better world.