Can't access files at localhost

[dave at tokyocomedy.com (Dave Gutteridge)]

It turns out that the reason I couldn't access files at localhost was
because the httpd service was not started. I've started it, and I can
access a test file that is in the /var/www/html directory.

However, the directory /var/www/html/web directory, which is a symlink
to /home/dave/web can not be accessed. Any file within that directory
that I try to access, says that I do not have permission to access that
file.

I tried changing the permissions on both the web symlink and the source
directory to 777, but that had no effect.

Why am I not able to access this directory via my local apache server?

Dave