The list of names is a roll call of my childhood.

Kilsyth Pool. I used to swim there with my two cousins. My aunt would take us swimming in Kilsyth Pool and then to an Italian place on the high street where I was illicitly allowed macaroni cheese and garlic bread - foods my mum would dismiss and ban as "stodge".

John Smith Pool, Airdrie. Before school I would meet my friends at the bus stop outside the John Smith Pool and we'd walk from there to Airdrie Academy.

I'd wait outside and watch the undulating blue fluid of the pool through the windows, a sort of morning meditation. It was the best place to go for a proper swim.

The Time Capsule in Coatbridge was good for fun but the swimming pool was too tiny to be functional. John Smith Pool was larger with more changing space and easier access to Christie's the bakers for a post-swim reward.

READ MORE: North Lanarkshire Council votes to shut 39 local facilities

The Aquatec in Motherwell. Oh my God, they cannot shut the Aqutec. The palace of dreams. We were spoiled in Coatbridge with the Time Capsule. Water and ice idea. But you can have too much of a good thing so, for birthdays and special occasions, we were taken all the way to Motherwell and thrilled at the change of scene.

Weird, free-form pools free of cavemen and sabre tooth tigers with bright flumes overhead. Afterwards we were taken to Equi's for ice cream, the very best ice cream. (Before you ask, no, none of my childhood memories are food-free)

Last week councillors in North Lanarkshire voted to close 39 community facilities - they include five swimming pools; 20 community centres; seven libraries, including the mobile library service's three vans; and a range of sport facilities from golf courses to sport centres.

All the good stuff, basically. All the places vital to learning and wellbeing and health. The places where communities come together and find a common focus. There isn't an area of North Lanarkshire unaffected.

The libraries are particularly sore. I lived in Coatbridge library as a child. The original Coatbridge library was a Carnegie - it was a beautiful B-listed building and is, of course, now flats. Luckily it wasn't closed permanently - it was relocated to a modern, indistinct, new build cube on Main Street. At least it's still there.

The six towns losing their libraries are not so lucky. One of these is Newarthill library, which was saved from closure in 2016 following an outcry at plans then to close it.

READ MORE: Full list of all the North Lanarkshire closures

The push to save it was backed by Ian Rankin, Armistead Maupin, David Nicholls and Val McDermid, with vocal support from local boy Damian Barr.

Let's hope the appetite is still there to save it again. Communities are exhausted from the aftermath of the pandemic and now the cost of living crisis. Now they have to fight for facilities they already thought they had saved.

Many of the centres that are to close were earmarked because of low footfall. Locals say this has been self-perpetuating: following lockdown many of the previous activities were not reinstated so there was no reason to use the facilities. But because they're not been used, the council says they won't be missed.

Places like Shotts, a former mining village, have already lost so many facilities and now they stand to lose more.

My own home town, Coatbridge, is one of the 55 around the UK to receive £22 million from the Tory government. I would love to see the workings here: why were these places highlighted as "forgotten towns"? It remains to be seen whether the cash will actually materialise but it's hard to take offence at the notion that Coatbridge, and other North Lanarkshire towns, have been "forgotten". A trip along the largely shuttered Main Street is a good illustration.

The Labour-run council blames the SNP government for squeezing council budgets. The SNP politicians blame their Labour counterparts for not managing their funds sufficiently.

In the middle, as there always is, are communities watching amenities vanish.

There feels a particular audacity to it, the way it came so out of the blue without community consultation. There is strong local feeling in opposition to these closures but the question begs: has that opposition come along too late?

Politicians say the choices they have had to make are "overwhelmingly difficult". Boo hoo. It is the people who suffer the effects of these decisions, and now will have to rally to fight them, who have it really difficult.