I need to create a link to a log file for a user inside their home directory which I do using:
ln -s /var/log/apache/access /home/user/access_log

The user has no permissions to the log/apache directory, nor do I intend to give them to him, but I just want to give them access to the log file.
How would I do this and not open up a security risk?
I did a search and all I could find was having to mount the directory using NFS or using a hard link (but that would exceed the users disk quota)

Thanks in advance.

In one word, sudo. See sudoers(5) for overview and syntax.

Use command visudo to edit your sudoers file, create a host_alias, a user_alias called LOGVIEWERS or similar. Add groups (%users) or the login usernames of just the users you want to grant access to.

Add a Cmnd_Alias ACCESSLOGVIEW or similar. Something like /bin/rview /var/log/apache/access.

Now tie the user, host and command using
LOGVIEWERS HOSTLIST=ACCESSLOGVIEW
and you're all set.

The user(s) thus added will be able to view the log when they
sudo rview /var/log/apache/access
when they will be prompted for *their* password. ( You can add a 'NOPASSWD:' before ACCESSLOGVIEW to circumvent this.) It wont ask them for a password again for another sudo command for the next 5 minutes IIRC.

PS: /bin/view is a 'read-only' version of the visual editor. rview is a restricted view, as in the user cannot spawn a shell or run a command using the colon key.